Cassano, Democratic Leadership Roll Out 2012 Jobs Agenda

State Sen. Stephen T. Cassano, D-Manchester, joined Democratic leaders on the shop floor of AdChem Manufacturing Technologies in Manchester today to announce the Democrats’ new, five-point jobs plan that will help local small businesses protect and grow jobs and boost Connecticut’s economy.

Just two weeks before the start of the 2012 legislative session, and citing job growth as their top priority, Sen. Cassano and other Democratic senators detailed their plans to build on the momentum created by the comprehensive and far-reaching jobs bill passed during October’s special session.

One of the Democrats’ major new proposals would expand access to tens of millions of dollars in existing state business loans and grants to an additional 2,600 state companies with 50 to 100 employees.

“The doomsday predictions that manufacturing is dead in Connecticut are way off-base. All you have to do is look at the recent growth in small manufacturers like AdChem to see that. There is long-term stability there,” said Cassano, whose Senate district includes AdChem. “Expanding the state’s Small Business Express Program from 50 to 100 employees is not only going to expand the base of potential applicants, it is going to help firms like AdChem who are ready to undertake that next, big expansion if the state is there to support them.”

“For companies like AdChem, which are close to the 50-employee mark and which are looking to expand, this proposed extension of the Small Business Express Program to 100 employees would benefit us greatly,” AdChem President Michael Polo said. Polo said he currently employs 48, is in the process of hiring two more, and would like to have 57 to 60 employees by the end of the year.

The Senate Democrats’ five-point jobs plan includes:

• Expanding the definition of a "small businesses" from 50 employees to 100 employees, thereby making them eligible for the Small Business Express Program and other programs created during the October special session. More than 2,600 additional businesses would now be eligible for $180 million in state-funded business loans and grants under the expanded definition. Small businesses (100 or fewer employees) are real job creators in Connecticut, employing over 60 percent of the state’s total workforce.
• Expanding Step-Up (Subsidized Training and Employment Program) to give businesses incentive grants to hire post-9/11 combat veterans returning from overseas. The Step-Up program already promotes jobs for Connecticut small businesses by subsidizing certain new employee training and employment with $20 million in state aid over two years; the proposed expansion of the program would specifically help veterans.
• Creating a ‘Connecticut Made’ marketing campaign to be administered by the state Department of Economic and Community Development, which would create a logo, develop a marketing campaign to include logo-based advertising for placement in store fronts and at fairs and markets, a Web site, and create membership criteria for businesses.
• Preventing discrimination against the unemployed. Statutory changes would prohibit employers from discriminating against job applicants simply because they are unemployed, including preventing employment agencies and Web sites from carrying advertisements for job openings that specifically exclude the unemployed. 
• Creating a "Connecticut Treasures" program. Connecticut has a wealth of educational and tourist destinations, and the state DECD would be tasked with promoting places such as Mystic Seaport, Mystic Aquarium, Connecticut Science Center, Stepping Stones Museum and Dinosaur State Park. The state Department of Education could simultaneously develop a model curriculum for all public schools that incorporates the use of these destinations.

“As Connecticut continues its economic recovery, the legislature must continue its focus on growing jobs, helping businesses expand and assisting people who have lost a job find permanent, new employment,” said Senate President Donald E. Williams, Jr. (D-Brooklyn).  “By significantly expanding our Small Business Express Program, we can build on the solid foundation of the October jobs bill and continue to put Connecticut residents back to work.”

For more on the October jobs bills (Public Act 11-1) which passed the General Assembly on an overwhelming and bipartisan 181-2 vote, please visit: http://www.senatedems.ct.gov/PDF/Jobs2011.pdf.