Creating Jobs In Connecticut
Several months ago, the Connecticut Democratic Party attacked my former company for accepting tax credits given for creating jobs right here in Connecticut. This morning, an editorial from the New Haven Register pointed out that these same tax credits, which caused Democrats to feign outrage, not only helped create jobs at WWE, but also encouraged another company to move its operations to Connecticut and hire new workers.
One of the biggest movie box office hits of the last year was produced not in Hollywood, but in Greenwich. State economic development officials in Hartford must be cheering. “Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs” was the most popular animated film of 2009, as measured by ticket sales. … A year ago, Blue Sky was lured from its former home in White Plains, N.Y., to Greenwich by a very generous package of state incentives. The studio gets a 30 percent tax credit on its production costs. The state also gave it a $750,000 sales tax exemption as well as an $8 million loan on which no payments are due for five years. If the studio meets its job projections, $6 million of the loan will be forgiven. So far, Blue Sky’s move to Connecticut is working for it and for the state. When it arrived here, it had about 300 workers. It now has about 400 and is still hiring.
After the failed $787 billion “stimulus” bill, we need leaders who know how to incentivize small businesses, the engine of our economy, which create 70% of new jobs. The next senator from Connecticut needs to know how to put our people back to work.