Western Connecticut has been home to much of the growth in the state over the past 10 years, clogging up infrastructure and tying up housing.
Spreading that wealth around, according to Francis Pickering, executive director of the Western Connecticut Council of Governments, is one way to relieve the pressure. He joined the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities-hosted “Municipal Voice” program on WNHH FM to talk his region and what Connecticut is already doing well.
“What people were fleeing in New York City,” Pickering said, “they were not fleeing a shortage or deficiency of things to do.”
For him, this migration is part of a much longer pattern that exists between the big city and Western Connecticut. COVID hit at a time when many millennials were hitting an age where they wanted to settle down.
In New York City, they didn’t have backyards or access to parks in much the same way that Connecticut has. Pickering said that most people in Connecticut are within 15 minutes of being able to take a walk in the forest – so what’s going to keep them here is stability.
A home is “often the largest investment in their life, it becomes a source of savings and intergenerational wealth, and they work really hard to choose a home location that they believe will deliver a return on investment.”
Pickering notes that “What’s wrong with Connecticut?” 0p-eds have largely died out as a theme lately, suggesting that the state has been a “beacon of calm in a gusty turbulent sea.”
With a budget surplus and ARP funding putting the wind in the sails, there’s the additional considerations of the likely infrastructure funding and a new federal rule that will make it easier for Connecticut to receive fund that are predicting smooth sailing at least in the short term.
Councils of Government, or COGs, are the closest thing that Connecticut has to county level government. In a state so small, the extra layer might seem extraneous and costly, but it has also prevented Connecticut from receiving federal funds.
“This has happened to me personally,” Pickering said, “When we’ve applied for a grant, and they say I love your application, but you’re not eligible.”
A new designation called County Equivalency from the Census Bureau will prevent that from happening – making COGs eligible for geographically determined moneys that would go to county-level government in other states.
As far as transportation – Pickering says that we still exist in a traffic pattern that was first laid out in the 1950s – everyone goes one way to work and back the other way home, creating the traffic that is so common on 95. Worse is the infrastructure on Metro North which harkens back to the 19th century.
So to fix this, to bring it up to the 21st century, Pickering argues that we’re going to need much more investment than what the current bill offers.
Most importantly though, Broadband can offer opportunities that asphalt roads cannot. By containing all the jobs to one area, you constrain the resources. Work from home policies can open up the state so that it evens out pressure and perhaps takes some vehicles off the road.
“What’s good for our regions is good for the rest of the state,” he states, “We should all be enjoying economic growth.”
A "beacon of calm in a gusty turbulent sea" is a major overreach. Our large open spaces - primarily in the suburbs - created a haven of safety (for those that could afford them) - the pandemic has NOT CHANGED the state's long-term economic policies - namely, "spend and tax" - the correct order for what we do.
The truth is Connecticut's State Domestic Growth is still lagging in New England and at the bottom of the pile overall. The six New England states averaged 6.7% for the 1st quarter, led by New Hampshire, which saw 8.4% growth—third-best in the country. Rhode Island posted 7.2% growth, followed by Massachusetts (6.9%), Vermont (6.1%), Connecticut, and Maine (5.2%) in the BOTTOM 5 of ALL states.
The only bright spot on our balance sheet is the Rainy Day Fund that was created due to bipartisan compromise forced by 100% of the Republican Senate and three brave Democrat Senators (Slossberg, Hartley, and Doyle). Those Senators insisted (without Gov. Malloy) for a spending and volatility cap on capital gains in order to properly finance our Rainy Day Fund (to ~15%) and start paying pension debt with anything left over.
This was a very unpopular vote. The vast majority of House and Senate Democrats in leadership roles - including all major cities objecting to it. Once the balance of power had shifted back to 100% Democrat Control, they have tried to dismantle it, illustrating a myopic and sophomoric understanding of macroeconomic policy - it equals flat growth for decades. Thankfully Gov. Lamont's economic team sees the fallacy for what it was - failed policy.
We still have ~$100 BILLION in long-term obligations. It will take tremendous leadership to fix that. We need massive economic growth (2-3% every year for about 15-20 years) in order to achieve breakeven. Will a pandemic create that type of growth? No.
We need far smarter planning around REALISTIC sustainable social spending coupled with long-term incentives to invest and more importantly, stay here.