The Day: State Bond Commission approves funding for dredging, workforce training for EB

The state will be giving Electric Boat $20 million for dredging to support the launch of submarines from a new dry dock and manufacturing superstructure being built in Groton, and $8 million for workforce training programs to support the submarine builder.

The money was approved by the state Bond Commission on Wednesday.

At Fort Trumbull in New London in May, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy announced that the state would be giving EB $83 million in exchange for the company adding jobs and spending hundreds of millions on capital improvements in Groton. The $28 million approved Wednesday represents a portion of the funding announced by Malloy.

State Sens. Paul Formica, R-East Lyme, and Heather Somers, R-Groton, said in a joint statement that “it is important for the state to show strong support for essential workforce training programs such as the state’s Workforce Investment Boards which enhance workforce development statewide benefiting a wide range of job creators — from small mom and pop vendors and manufacturers to larger employers.”

As for the money for dredging, they said “there is a long history surrounding the need for funding to support dredging, not only at Electric Boat but throughout our state where marinas of varying sizes and boating access points and ports depend on occasional sediment removal to keep our waterways free of buildup that impedes sub movement and shipping traffic.”

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Letter: Somers got it right on boat taxation

Connecticut’s economy continues to struggle. We are fortunate to have a legislator like state Senator Heather Somers, R-Groton, who knows we need to take bold steps to turn this around.

Somers should be commended for her leadership in seeing that the sales tax on boat purchases is reduced to 2.99 percent starting July 1. This will be a shot in the arm to shoreline marinas and boat dealers who have been losing sales to Rhode Island. More boat sales will translate into greater economic activity to related shoreline businesses like restaurants, hotels and petroleum.

I attended the public hearing on this issue earlier this session held by the Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee. Somers testified and I was greatly impressed with her knowledge of the issue and her presentation to the committee members. She adroitly handled the questions asked of her, and made a very persuasive case. Somers is a businesswoman by profession and she knows what it takes to meet a payroll and expand operations.

The lower sales tax on boat sales will help our shoreline economy. I want to recognize Senator Somers for her key leadership on this success.

Ron Helbig

Chairman

CT Marine Trades Association Inc.

Groton

Read the full letter to the editor here.

The Day: Republicans endorse Heather Somers for re-election to 18th District state Senate seat

Groton — Republican delegates to the party’s convention unanimously endorsed incumbent Sen. Heather Somers this week for the 18th District state Senate seat.

Somers was elected to the seat — which covers Groton, Stonington, North Stonington, Preston, Griswold, Voluntown, Sterling and Plainfield — in 2016.

“I am incredibly proud that in just over one year in office, I have challenged business-as-usual in Hartford, brought greater accountability to public institutions by exposing wrongdoing and demanding reform and delivered results for eastern Connecticut,” Somers said in a news release.

She was unopposed at the Republican Convention on Monday and will not face a primary in August.

The Democratic candidates vying for the seat are Bob Statchen and Dan Kelley.

Read the full article here.

The Day: Investment in sub manufacturing training needed to fend off competition, senators say

State Sens. Paul Formica, R-East Lyme, and Heather Somers, R-Groton, are urging support for a bill that would provide $10 million in state funding over the next five years to train advanced manufacturing workers for Electric Boat and other employers across the state. They say the proposal will send a message to the Navy and other states competing for submarine contracts that Connecticut supports its submarine industry.

“The Navy needs to know, if Electric Boat is granted these contracts, that they are able to fulfill the contracts by having a skilled workforce,” Somers said Tuesday, testifying in support of Senate Bill 444 at a hearing of the Commerce Committee.

Somers and Formica asked the commerce committee, of which Formica is a member, to raise the bill, which in addition to the $10 million for training programs, would create an innovation hub for plastics manufacturing in an unused 1,000-square-foot lab at Three Rivers Community College, and require the head of the Department of Community and Economic Development to assess the capital needs of the submarine industry every three years.

The $10 million would sustain the Eastern CT Manufacturing Pipeline Initiative developed by the Eastern Workforce Investment Board and the state’s technical schools and community colleges to meet the workforce needs of EB and other manufacturers due to an uptick in submarine construction, and expand it to other parts of the state.

More than 5,600 people have applied to participate in the training pipeline, which now offers curriculums in seven different trade areas. Students are vetted through American Job Centers and spend between 10 and 12 weeks in intensive no-cost training programs, which run five days a week for six to seven hours a day. More than 90 percent of students, or more than 900, who have gone through the program have received job offers immediately upon graduating, according to John Beauregard, executive director of EWIB.

The training is catered to the needs of employers, which have helped develop the curriculums and design the classrooms. “That employer engagement is the ‘secret sauce’ to why the program has been successful,” Beauregard said.

While most of the students have gone on to work at EB, 137 different employers have hired from the program, according to Beauregard. Maura Dunn, vice president of human resources for EB, submitted written testimony in support of the bill, noting the company has hired 750 people from the pipeline and that those who have gone through the program “are better prepared for success.”

Graduates receive an additional 20 to 30 weeks of on-the-job training once at EB, which spends more than $40 million annually on training, according to Somers.

The pipeline initiative was started two years ago with funding from the federal government, which runs out this year. Formica and Sen. Cathy Osten, D-Sprague, worked to secure $1.5 million in the biennial state budget passed Oct. 31 to sustain the program. In fiscal year 2018, $500,000 was allotted and $1 million was slated for fiscal year 2019, but the governor’s recent budget proposal cuts that down to $500,000.

Senate Bill 444 would reverse that cut and provide funding to keep the program solvent and expand it to include other workforce investment boards, Formica said, noting that there are smaller suppliers and vendors throughout the state that also need a trained workforce.

Rep. Craig Fishbein, R-Wallingford, a member of the commerce committee, questioned the need for the state to support a privately traded company like EB. Since 1997, Connecticut has provided about $42 million to EB in the form of grants and other subsidies, according to the corporate watchdog group Good Jobs First.

“Twenty-five years ago, I don’t think the government stepped up and did these things. Why should we be funding this?” Fishbein asked.

Somers offered the example of Virginia, which has developed and funded a technology center next to Newport News Shipbuilding, which with EB builds fast attack submarines, “so that’s what we’re dealing with,” she said. The state also has made capital investments in the shipyard.

Beauregard said the “vast majority” of the investment in the program benefits the students. “It changes people from either an unemployed or underemployed situation to now be operating at a full-time job with benefits, so the impact there to Connecticut’s economy is they start to spend some money, they start to spin off other jobs and they are now operating at full potential, full productivity and full earning power,” he said.

Sen. Osten has introduced legislation similar to what Formica and Somers are pushing. Osten’s bill, Senate Bill 3, also would provide funding for training programs, but also proposes funding for infrastructure projects at EB’s Groton shipyard.

Read the full article here.