Aerospace Deal Key to Connecticut’s Economic Future

HB 5465 allows the United Technologies Corporation (UTC) to redeploy previously earned tax credits into capital investments, thereby enabling the company to invest up to $500 million in the state in the next five years to upgrade and expand its facilities, and invest up to $4 billion in research and development.

As a result, Connecticut would remain the center of UTC’s aerospace R&D activities and the home of Pratt & Whitney and Sikorsky headquarters for many years to come.

While the proposal affects at least 75,000 UTC jobs in the state, it also extends to the nearly 2,500 small businesses that serve as direct suppliers to UTC. This week, Gov. Malloy’s website provided a town-by-town review of the direct jobs impact that UTC has in more than 70 municipalities in Connecticut.  

What’s more, retaining and focusing research and development work in Connecticut will create the opportunity for Connecticut to capture the entrepreneurial and economic spinoffs that typically emerge from such high level research.

Research and development is seen as one of Connecticut’s competitive advantages and this innovative bill ensures that we will strengthen our position as a leader in aerospace research, development and manufacturing.  

CBIA has spoken recently about the urgency of making Connecticut a Top 20 state for business by 2017—that is, energizing our economy so well that we enter the top tier of national scorecards produced by CNBC, Forbes, and others.

Allowing the deployment of tax credits that have already earned into an infusion of new capital investment to benefit these towns, cities and jobs, and to create untold new opportunities, would boost our state’s economy and send a strong message to the rankings people.

A few years ago, a UCONN study suggested that if Connecticut companies were permitted to transform stranded tax credits into active capital investment, and took advantage of this framework, it would have a huge positive impact on the state's economic health.

This proposal would be an excellent use of that strategy.

For more information, contact CBIA’s Bonnie Stewart at 860.244.1925 | bonnie.stewart@cbia.com | @CBIAbonnie