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July/August 2007 — Vol. 85, No. 6
FROM THE PRESIDENT
Mostly good news on
legislative session
By John R. Rathgeber
CBIA President and CEO
From the business community’s perspective, this year’s General Assembly session produced mostly good results.
The new state budget addresses several business priorities — for example, by earmarking more funding to improve education, transportation and affordable housing. And we’re thankful the budget contains no tax increases that would harm our economy, although we are concerned that its overall level of spending may be unsustainable in coming years.
The vast majority of the bills approved by the Labor Committee that would have hurt our economy failed to pass. Those included proposals that would have increased your workers’ compensation costs, limited employer-employee communications (the so-called “captive audience” issue) and added a new sick-leave mandate.
Legislators also did not approve most of the harmful health care bills, such as those calling for new coverage mandates and a single-payer, government-run health care system. They did, however, leave the door open for such a system by calling for a study of the issue.
In addition, several pro-growth bills passed. An omnibus health care bill includes a number of reform proposals supported by business. A comprehensive energy bill is expected to increase electric generating capacity, promote energy efficiency and lower costs over time. And a brownfields bill will make it easier to remediate contaminated properties for development.
I would like to thank all of you who took the time to contact state legislators about these issues. Your involvement in our grassroots activities was invaluable in educating legislators about what they should or should not do to make Connecticut more competitive for job growth. We also appreciate the help of other organizations that worked with us, particularly the members of the Coalition for a Competitive Connecticut, the Connecticut Hospital Association and the Association of Connecticut Health Plans.
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