Dillon Cautions vs. Amazon Rush

Queens’s loss wouldn’t necessarily be Connecticut’s gain.

That word of caution comes from Queens-reared New Haven State Rep. Pat Dillon.

She offered those words during an appearance on WNHH FM’s ​“Dateline New Haven” program, offering a counter-perspective to the reaction by the Lamont administration to Queens, N.Y.‘s opposition to giving Amazon $3 billion in tax incentives and other government gifts to move a headquarters into the borough.

Gov. Ned Lamont has openly courted Amazon to move its new headquarters to Connecticut now that the retail giant’s plans to locate in Queens have fallen through amid public opposition to the tax incentives and fears about rising housing prices and exploitive labor policies. (Amazon announced Thursday that it has canceled its plans to move to Queens.)

Dillon argued that concentrating public benefits on luring large new employers isn’t the best use of government resources.

“City planners and mayors and so forth tend to overvalue bringing sparkling new things in and often discount what they already have,” Dillon said. ​“Instead of building on your strengths, it’s, ​‘Lookit! I’ve got this new thing!’ It’s like a legislator saying: ​‘I’ve got ten bills, not only two! I’m better!’”

Dillon called tax incentives a ​“useful tool” as part of a government strategy to lure jobs if employed ​“prudently.”

But ​“just throwing money at the corporate class isn’t always” the best approach, she said. Government resources are finite, Dillon said; she argued that money is usually better spent building on a local community’s existing strengths. She noted the strength of New Haven’s health care sector, one of the city’s largest employment sectors, for instance.

She spoke of concerns about state government’s continued ​“gutting” of Connecticut Mental Health Care Center while the state, under former Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, showered hundreds of millions of dollars of incentives on trying to lure or keep big employers here under the ​“First Five” program.

State Republican ChairmanJ.R. Romano, who also appeared on the program, agreed with Dillon that the ​“First Five” approach didn’t represent the best job-creation strategy.

“I don’t think we should have corporate welfare,” Romano said. My favorite example is Bridgewater — the state’s richest man got $150 million to move his hedge fund from Westport to Stamford, and the deal fell through anyway.

“The problem is that Connecticut’s environment for business is not a good one.”

Romano argued that the first priority should be to lower taxes in Connecticut.

Click on the video below to watch the full episode of ​“Dateline New Haven” with State Rep. Pat Dillon and state GOP Chairman J.R. Romano. Romano joins the program mid-episode. The first Amazon discussion begins at the 4:48 mark.