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Capital Concerns
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Business New Haven
12/29/1997
By: BNH
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Electric Deregulation Tops MAC Legislative Agenda
The Waterbury-based Manufacturing Alliance of Connecticut Inc. is putting the finishing touches on its 1998 legislative agenda, and deregulation of electric utilities promises to be one of the biggest issues for this session, which begins February 4.
“It's probably the most timely and critical issue for manufacturing in Connecticut,” says Frank Johnson, MAC's executive director. “We've been so competitively disadvantaged for so long that we really need electric deregulation.”
The newly formed Coalition for Deregulated Electricity, created under the MAC banner, hopes to convince both consumers and legislators about the need for deregulation.
“Right now this is being perceived as a manufacturing issue or a business issue,” Johnson says. “But it really involves everybody who buys electricity, which is everyone in Connecticut.”
Johnson says the legislation, which made little headway last session, has strong support from the Energy & Technology Committee, as well as from other key state lawmakers, the two major utilities and Gov. John G. Rowland. In fact, Rowland was keynote speaker at MAC's legislative planning session earlier this month.
Rowland noted that the bill made it to the “five-yard line” and then collapsed because of “weak-kneed” lawmakers.
A potential problem is that in short sessions such as this one, the General Assembly tends to grapple with fewer substantive and heavily controversial issues. Electric deregulation, however, is likely to rise above that.
“Details will be quibbled about, to be sure,” Johnson says, “but overall the idea seems to be as strong now as it's ever been.”
CTC Meeting Previews Legislative Outlook
Harry H. Penner Jr., chairman and president of the Connecticut Technology Council, will lead a discussion of the driving issues important to technology and provide insight into the politics of the 1998 legislative session at a luncheon January 21. Penner, who is also CEO of Neurogen Corp. in Branford, will be joined by John Rathgeber, executive vice president of the Connecticut Business & Industry Association. Highlighting the meeting will be an analysis of the 1998 CTC public policy agenda. For details, call CTC at 203-333-3284.
State Overhauls
HELP Program
The state will usher in the initial phase of its so-called one-stop registry concept come January, the first step toward eliminating a licensing nightmare.
Connecticut has more than 670 licenses and permits, and businesses trying to secure the proper documents had, until now, been left to their own devices to figure out what they needed, from where, and how to get it.
“It requires them to either spend a lot of money on an attorney to do this for them or to spend a lot of time and effort themselves,” notes Bruce Carlson, policy development director for the state's Office of Policy & Management.
The one-stop registry concept is part of an effort now being called HELP (high efficiency licensing program). The program will be unfolded in three stages through 1999.
In January, a combined licensing center will open at the Connecticut Economic Resource Center in Rocky Hill. It will include the departments of revenue services and labor, as well as the Secretary of the State's office. Over time, other agencies will be added. The ultimate goal is to have a streamlined licensing and permitting process that can be conducted over the Internet.
A similar but less comprehensive program was shut down in June 1996 over budget problems. The HELP program is being funded by taxpayer money. A budget is not yet in place, Carlson says.
Comments or suggestions for this section may be directed to Jennifer M. Gangloff via BNH or via e-mail at JenWrites@mindspring.com
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