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Tag: Ned Lamont

  • 3 New England governors demand briefing on power project risks

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    Four Northeast governors on Wednesday demanded a classified briefing from the Trump administration to understand the national security risks underlying the pause on offshore wind project leases.

    Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont and Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee also called for the pause to be lifted immediately on the five offshore wind projects, including Vineyard Wind 1 off the coast of Nantucket.

    “It strains credulity to believe that vital, substantial projects that underwent many federal reviews and processes, including by the DoD (Department of Defense), all of a sudden present new, existential, unforeseen threats,” the governors wrote in a letter to U.S. Department of Interior Secretary Doug Burgum.

    The Department of Interior announced Monday that it was pausing all large-scale offshore wind leases immediately in response to “national security risks identified by the Department of War in recently completed classified reports.” The department said it would work with the Department of War and other government agencies to “assess the possibility of mitigating the national security risks posed by these projects.”

    In their requested briefing, the governors said they want a “clear description of the specific national security risks” and “[i]dentification of the particular project components, if any, alleged to give rise to those risks.”

    The governors wrote that federal officials did not notify states about “any purportedly new risk” before the project suspensions.

    “The sudden emergence of a new ‘national security threat’ appears to be less a legitimate, rational finding of fact and more a pretextual excuse to justify a predetermined outcome consistent with the President’s frequently stated personal opposition to offshore wind,” their letter says.

    In its announcement, the Department of Interior pointed to national security risks that are “inherent” to large offshore wind projects and invoked unclassified federal government reports that “have long found that the movement of massive turbine blades and the highly reflective towers create radar interference called ‘clutter.’”

    The governors argued that, “If ‘clutter’ were such a grave threat, it might also apply to the thousands of oil rigs and other seaborne infrastructure in our coastal waters.” They also emphasized the projects have already been vetted by federal officials, including at the Department of Defense.

    “The military had the opportunity to raise concerns and object. They did not, and further certified there was no threat to national security,” their letter says. “To claim a threat exists now, after billions of dollars have been invested in these projects and reviews fully completed, is the height of irrationality.”

    Fifty iron workers lost their jobs just before the holidays due to the halted work on Vineyard Wind, Ironworkers Local 7 said Tuesday. The union said it is “thoroughly disgusted and furious” at the administration’s action.

    “If we are serious about making energy more affordable and strengthening American industry, we need more energy projects of all types, not fewer,” the union said. “We call on the president to reverse this decision so our members can get back to work providing reliable, affordable power for Massachusetts.”

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    Alison Kuznitz

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  • Federal Covid Relief Is Ending. Connecticut’s Public Colleges Could Face Big Cuts.

    Federal Covid Relief Is Ending. Connecticut’s Public Colleges Could Face Big Cuts.

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    Last week, a governor had a strong message for public colleges in his state: Get ready for a world without Covid-relief funding.

    Gov. Ned Lamont of Connecticut, a Democrat, has directed substantial cuts to higher ed in his state-budget proposal for the 2024 fiscal year. Lamont’s chief budget official told CT Mirror that the influx of federal money that’s poured in over the last three years was always temporary, and that colleges should have planned accordingly.

    The governor’s proposal hasn’t sat well with higher-ed leaders. Radenka Maric, the University of Connecticut’s president, estimated that her campus could lose $160 million in state funding next year. In response, Maric has threatened to sever ties with the arena in Hartford where the basketball team typically plays, according to The Daily Campus, the student newspaper, citing, in part, that the costs of the arena deal benefit the state and local businesses more than the university.

    Mason Holland, UConn’s student-body president, called on students to walk out of class on Wednesday and travel to the state capitol to protest the cuts.

    Colleges received more than $76 billion from three Covid-relief measures passed by Congress in 2020 and 2021. The aid allowed many colleges to keep students enrolled and maintain critical programs throughout the pandemic, while also scaling up investments in mental-health counselors, basic-needs resources, and other student-support initiatives.

    But that aid has mostly run out and will end entirely in a few months, leaving some colleges scrambling to find funding to cover the rising cost of operations. That challenge has come into sharp relief in Connecticut, where the state’s financial realities raise serious questions about how colleges can adjust.

    Robert Kelchen, a professor of higher education and head of the department of educational leadership and policy studies at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, said declines in enrollment, the rising cost of facility maintenance and utilities, and salary increases for faculty and staff are driving increasing costs.

    The University of Connecticut originally received a one-time $28.4-million infusion of direct pandemic-related aid, which university officials said they distributed through grants to students and used to cover pandemic-related costs during the 2022 fiscal year. After Connecticut policy makers negotiated salary increases with public employees, state officials also gave colleges additional funding from the American Rescue Plan in 2023 to help cover the costs.

    Instead of states using their budget surpluses to make those investments in higher education, many states have been engaged in a race to the bottom with tax cuts.

    This year, UConn leaders again requested more state funding to help cover those employee-related costs, which will grow next year. But by the looks of Lamont’s budget, that isn’t going to happen.

    The proposal would decrease higher-ed funding over the next two fiscal years — amounting to a $159.6-million budget reduction at UConn next year and a $197.1-million reduction the following year based on a preliminary review, according to Maric.

    “The appropriations proposed for UConn and UConn Health fall far short of what is necessary to adequately fund the university, carry out our critical public health mission most effectively, and fully cover the sizable costs the state seeks to pass along to us,” Maric said in a letter to the university community last week.

    Terrence Cheng, president of Connecticut State Colleges and Universities, said the proposal has the potential to create “long-term harm” to the state’s institutions.

    Lamont’s office didn’t respond to several requests for comment from The Chronicle.

    As Kelchen sees it, economic challenges are a key driver of what’s happening in Connecticut.

    “Covid-relief funding helped plug a lot of gaps in states with budget challenges, and Connecticut is one of the states that hasn’t seen the growth and the revenue that other states have seen during the last couple of years,” Kelchen said.

    Beyond Connecticut, states across the country are considering tax cuts that would exacerbate higher-ed funding problems, said Tom Harnisch, vice president for government relations at the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association.

    “Instead of states using their budget surpluses to make those investments in higher education, many states have been engaged in a race to the bottom with tax cuts,” Harnisch said. “This will affect the ability of states to make investments in key priorities such as higher education when the economy slows down, and federal funds disappear.”

    If UConn were to try and cover the cost of these potential shortfalls by raising tuition, that would mean an increase of 19 percent — or $3,000 — per student next year, Maric said.

    “We simply cannot provide less while asking our students to pay more,” Maric said.

    Raising tuition is one way to alleviate financial pressures, both Kelchen and Harnisch noted. That isn’t always an option in states where the legislature or state governing board controls tuition. Colleges have the authority to raise tuition in Connecticut, but Harnisch said that approach has drawbacks.

    “We’ve seen this movie before,” Harnisch said. “Unfortunately, it ends with students taking on more debt.”

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    Eva Surovell

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  • Lego to move from Connecticut to Boston starting in 2025

    Lego to move from Connecticut to Boston starting in 2025

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    The Lego Group announced Tuesday that it will move its North American headquarters from Enfield, Connecticut, to Boston, Massachusetts, by the end of 2026.

    Skip Kodak, president of the Lego Group in the Americas, said in a release that the move supports the Denmark-based global toymaker’s growth ambitions.

    “Boston is ranked one of the best cities in the world to attract and retain talent,” Kodak said in a statement. “This, along with its world-class academic institutions, skilled workforce and great quality of life makes it an ideal location for our US head office.”

    Lego has about 740 full-time employees in the Connecticut office.

    All of the employees will have a position at the Boston office and receive relocation help if they want to make the move, the Lego Group said. The move will happen in phases starting in mid-2025 and be completed by the end of 2026, the company said.

    Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said in a statement that she was thrilled to welcome the Lego Group to Boston and looks forward to supporting the company as it transitions its headquarters and joins “our mission to become the most family-friendly city in the country.”

    The Lego Group opened the Connecticut office in 1975. Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont said in a release he was disappointed to hear about the move.

    Lamont said based on his conversations with Lego’s leadership Tuesday morning that “their move is motivated not by any Connecticut policy but rather LEGO’s desire to consolidate their business operations near the company’s Education Office and to enhance their partnership with MIT,” referring to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, located in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

    Lamont said the Connecticut Department of Economic Community Development, Office of Workforce Strategy, and Department of Labor will work with Lego to find employment for workers who decide to the leave the company and stay in Connecticut.

    Some industry watchers said in June that the Lego Group’s announcement that it would build a new factory in Richmond, Virginia, may not be a good sign for the company’s future in Connecticut.

    A company spokesperson said at the time that the decision would have no impact on the size and scope of the Enfield headquarters.


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  • The Economic Policy Project Urges Governor and Legislature to ‘Focus on What We Need, Not on What We Have’

    The Economic Policy Project Urges Governor and Legislature to ‘Focus on What We Need, Not on What We Have’

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    Unveils Three-Point Turnaround Plan to Attract and Retain Businesses and Residents to Connecticut

    Press Release
    –


    updated: Feb 4, 2019


    WESTPORT, Conn., February 4, 2019 (Newswire.com)
    –
     Greg Kraut, founder of the newly launched Connecticut-based “solutions tank” The Economic Policy Project (www.economicpolicyproject.org), is calling on the state to adopt an emergency economic development program called Come to CT. This is in response to Governor Lamont’s latest economic development announcement where he stated that we need to “focus on what we have.”

    Come to CT is designed to “focus on what we need,” which is to retain and attract businesses and residents to Connecticut, and immediately urges Governor Ned Lamont and the legislature to focus on cultivating “what we need” and not on “draining what we have.”

    Kraut believes the state needs a complete economic overhaul to be competitive.

    “We can’t afford to rely on what we have since what we have has brought us to where we are,” Kraut said. “We must immediately change Connecticut’s anti-business reputation and all-around high tax structure. Mixed messages are not effective – we can’t talk about raising the minimum wage and taxing groceries and have a believable conversation about economic development.”

    According to Kraut, “Fewer residents and businesses lead to less revenue for our top schools, exacerbates our crumbling infrastructure and leads to property value decline.”

    Come to CT proposes the following three initiatives:

    1. Recruit and Retain Business – To help keep our existing businesses, Connecticut should create immediate incentives to companies that agree to hire new employees and to meet performance standards to attract high-priced jobs. In Virginia, they use workforce grants that have been successful in luring top companies like Amazon. Virginia has also used transportation investments to sweeten the pot. We also need to focus on assistance programs such as consulting engagements following the model of Florida’s initiative GrowFL. GrowFL, which offers four- to six-week consulting contracts, has resulted in the direct creation of 1,419 jobs, plus 819 jobs created indirectly, with a total economic input – as measured by sales and output – of $510.4 million.
       
    2. Create Organic Business – To attract new businesses through public/private partnerships, Connecticut should establish business incubators, which could also make monetary investments in companies that show potential for growth and job creation but that might not meet traditional funding criteria banks require. It could follow the model of Pennsylvania’s Ben Franklin Technology Partners. We need to look only at this model as an example of how we could be doing better things here in Connecticut. Investments can take the form of debt or equity and can be converted to one or the other.
       
    3. Recruit and Retain Educated Workers – To attract and keep the type of workforce that 21st-century companies are looking for, Connecticut must lower the state income tax to give us a value proposition over New Jersey and New York and to put us in line with Massachusetts where, as a result of lower taxes, clustered employees have surpassed Connecticut in growth. Tax reform, together with a student debt forgiveness program tied to residency, will grow our GDP and help Connecticut recruit and retain millennials, keep young families and encourage high-net-worth individuals to Come to CT.

    “Our citizens and businesses are telling us that we don’t have what they want and that we are not competitive. Instead of focusing on what we have, we need to focus on what we need. For too long, Connecticut has not treated businesses or residents like customers and, as a result, they are leaving Connecticut in droves to find a better ‘product’ elsewhere,” said Kraut.

    “Other states have been in competition with each other for business and residents; a fact that Connecticut has been unresponsive to. For years, Connecticut relied on wealthy residents and financial service businesses from New York City and had become complacent, while other states like Florida and Texas were actively attracting Connecticut’s businesses and residents.

    “As Connecticut looks to rebound from years of poor economic growth, we need to send a message that the state is back in business,” said Kraut. “The immediate adoption of the Come to CT program will show companies that Connecticut is open for business and that it’s a vibrant state for workers and families alike.”

    About The Economic Policy Project:

    The Economic Policy Project is an independent, non-profit research institution dedicated to promoting smart bipartisan public policy solutions for Connecticut’s biggest fiscal challenges. The Economic Policy Project priorities are job growth, strengthening education, revitalizing Connecticut’s transportation network, sustainable budgeting, optimizing revenue streams and limiting debt and wasteful spending. The Institute encourages citizen activists to educate legislators and decision makers about smart government solutions that are used both in the public and private sector. Coming together from a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences, a skilled team of citizen solutionists is the backbone of The Economic Policy Project. Their ideas help shape the direction and mission of the organization as it continues to develop. For more information, visit www.economicpolicyproject.org.

    Media Contact:
    Greg Kraut
    Phone: 203-493-0771
    Email: greg@economicpolicyproject.org

    Source: Economic Policy Project

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