What to know about the Homeland Security shutdown

Lamont joins Democratic governors in boycott of White House dinner after exclusions

CT GOP unveil plan to make Connecticut more affordable

Sen. Blumenthal slams loan caps for teaching, social work degrees enacted by Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’

Power & Politics: One-on-one with Gov. Ned Lamont on his 2026 agenda; Vitale wins in Fairfield

Blumenthal criticizes proposal to shift election control to federal government

connecticut

News 12 Staff

RTCTPowerPolitics02142026BBlock230pm_2026-02-14-14-55-31

I'm Mark Sudall. Welcome back to Power and Politics. Joining me now is CBIA Vice President of Public Policy, Chris Davis. Welcome to the show, Chris. Great to be with you again, Mark. Thanks so much for having me. Great to have you. Hey, CBIA had just had the economic summit last month. What were the takeaways from that? Well, we had the governor come and join us and gave us a little bit of a preview of what he was going to announce the following week for his budget adjustments, so. That was a great way for him to kind of reach out to the business community, let them know about some of the things that were going to be in his budget that are very helpful, like extending the pass-through entity or the research and development tax credit to pass through entities. And also he announced that one-time tax rebate that is part of his budget agenda this year as well. So that was kind of big news to be announced at our event. But we also had a panel of legislators talking about the legislative session, what they're expecting to work on this year to help businesses, especially small businesses here in the state. And we heard from national economists that talked about what trends are we seeing in the national economy so that we can be best prepared for economic growth here in Connecticut. And being prepared, uh, you talked about, uh, we know there's a lot of economic and policy uncertainty that seems to come out of Washington these days. Uh, what is CBIA doing to navigate some of this unpredictability? Well, the unpredictability is something that has been a challenge over the last year for a lot of businesses, and it's not just in one particular industry sector. It seems to be impacting nearly all industry sectors. So we at CBIA have been doing a great job of getting information out to our members. We have a robust communications team providing that information, letting them know about some of the changes that are happening sometimes on a daily basis at the federal level with different court cases coming down, but also things that are happening here at the state level. Making sure that everyone is prepared for any kind of changes here, which is why policymakers here in the state, it's so important for them to make sure that we have that predictability and and stability here at the state level, whether that be tax policy, labor policy, uh, issues dealing with energy so that we can make the right decisions here as business leaders here in Connecticut to help us set us up to be not only competing here in Connecticut, regionally, but also nationally with all the uncertainty that's happening. And I know CBIA kind of keeps a close eye on what's going on in this new legislative session. Uh, the governor just delivered his state of the state address to open the session this month. Uh, what were your takeaways? What did you like and not like? What could the governor do different? Yes, we are very excited about the research and development tax credits going to past two entities. It's something that CBIA has been advocating for years for. It's a real help for those businesses to be able to make investments in Connecticut in order to get the tax credit. You have to invest in that research and that development here in our state. And that will help these small businesses be able to create jobs and really compete. Like I talked about, not only just here regionally, nationally, but even internationally for a lot of these businesses when it comes to research and development. So this was a very positive thing. Uh, the governor also talked about providing tax credits for small businesses that make investments into individual healthcare accounts for their employees. Yet another positive thing for our small. Businesses, uh, here in Connecticut if that proposal is to move forward. Uh, but there was, uh, part of that one-time tax rebate proposal called for a change to the volatility cap, uh, here in the state, which is what caps, uh, the amount of volatile revenue from income taxes, uh, pastor entities, other small, uh, businesses. That revenue. Usually goes into the rainy day fund or paying off pension debt lately because we've been able to have such great surpluses here in the state. The governor's suggesting a one-time adjustment to that to spend that money this year for this tax rebate, although families in Connecticut certainly need the support and assistance right now with the high costs due to inflation. I think it's important for us to be looking at long-lasting, sustainable ways to provide that through either changes in tax code, better job opportunities, greater investments, uh, rather than making changes to that volatility cap, which we at CBIA are very concerned about because it could lead to holes in the budget in the, in the short term, in the next few years, which would ultimately lead to tax increases for residents and for businesses alike. Now, we're hearing about a lot of layoffs across the country. How are uh jobs going right now in Connecticut and what, uh, what's going on with small businesses? Well, here in Connecticut we actually have a relatively low unemployment rate, so we, our businesses have really been stepping up and looking to hire. In fact, we have 74,000 job openings across the state. And these job openings are in nearly every industry. There's thousands of jobs open in healthcare, thousands of jobs open in manufacturing, thousands of jobs in retail and construction. So Connecticut employers are stepping up to the plate. Our wages are actually higher on a monthly basis than the rate of inflation. So employers are stepping up. They're trying to To pay their employees to attract them to be moving here, uh, in Connecticut and filling those open jobs. So despite some of these national trends of, of layoffs and, in, in some industries like information technology and others, we're actually seeing a lot of job openings here in Connecticut, trying to fill those, uh, high-demand jobs that Connecticut economy is so, uh, Used to having like healthcare and manufacturing and financial services, these industries are looking for people and that's why we need to have policies at the state level that attract them with lower costs for healthcare, for childcare, greater workforce development opportunities to try to make sure that people can move here, live here and stay here and work, uh, for our many industries across the state. You have another big event coming up in April. What can we expect from CBIA's upcoming workforce summit? Well, the Workforce summit is, is one of our biggest events of the year, and we partner with the Office of Workforce Strategy here at the state level. It's on April 2nd. It's at the Connecticut Convention Center and it brings together academic leaders, business leaders, workforce development experts from around the country to discuss ways that we can connect students, um, with those jobs in the future and adult learners with those jobs in the future. Um, classroom to career connection is so important for us and that's why this summit on April 2nd is going to be able to bring in all of those experts and really provide opportunities for. Businesses, students, teachers, uh, academic leaders, and others to all come together and talk about the best pathways because nearly half of the jobs that students are potentially going to be in in the next few years, they may not even exist yet based off of a lot of studies with the advancements in AI. So we need to be really looking towards the future right now and that's what this summit's all about. Chris, thank you so much. I'm sorry we have to run. Thanks again. Thank you.

https://vod.prod.alticeustech.com/transcode/ef81faa4-19a9-4730-84e5-374d347214a1/ef81faa4-19a9-4730-84e5-374d347214a1.transcribe

RTCTPowerPolitics02142026CBlock230pm_2026-02-14-15-14-40

On Capitol Hill, legislation imposing stricter voting ID requirements was narrowly passed in the House. The Save America Act, backed by President Trump, requires documented proof of US citizenship in order to vote in federal elections. The bill would also allow the Department of Homeland Security to seize voter rolls in any state. If this passes in the Senate, it would completely change the voting process in America. It heads to the Senate floor next. The US national debt is expected to nearly double in the next 10 years. Right now it stands at a bit more than $38 trillion. Much of the immediate increase is credited to President Trump's big beautiful bill enacted last summer. The Congressional Budget Office says the spending package and other policy changes will fuel a $1.4 trillion increase in the federal budget deficit over the next decade. Staying safe from scammers, it's a trend that is targeting seniors. Attorney General William Tong was in Greenwich this week giving them advice. Tong encourages older adults not to pick up the phone from numbers they don't recognize, and if they do pick up the phone, they should not stay on the phone for very long. Tong says social media has made it easier for people to be tricked and for scammers to find potential targets. Most of us have an account, even if you don't monitor it all the time. And even if none of that is true, your loved ones do have social media. And they're talking about you. Right? So they're talking about uh the last birthday party they went to. They're talking about somebody they lost in their family. They're talking about a major family milestone. Right. Other tips include not sending or wiring money and coming up with a code word with your family so they can use it during an emergency. More relief for student loan borrowers. Governor Lamont announcing a new round of grants is now available through the state's student loan reimbursement program. Eligible applicants could see up to $5000 forgiven per year or $20,000 forgiven over 4. Years to qualify, you have to be a Connecticut resident, made loan payments last year, earned a degree in state, and meet income limits. Lastly, borrowers must complete required community service. For more on how to apply, visit newstwelve.com. That's all our time. I'm Mark Sudall. Thanks for watching.

https://vod.prod.alticeustech.com/transcode/557a7b97-9f3f-41eb-9a0c-595f315b2153/557a7b97-9f3f-41eb-9a0c-595f315b2153.transcribe

Sen. Richard Blumenthal and Connecticut Business & Industry Association Vice President of Public Policy Chris Davis join the show this week.

Local

Crime

Weather

beWell

The East End

Crime Files

Local

Crime

Weather

beWell

The East End

Crime Files

Main

News

Sections

Choose Your Region

Be the first to know

Main

News

Sections

Change

Be the first to know

More Stories

More from News 12

Power & Politics: One-on-one with Gov. Ned Lamont on his 2026 agenda; Vitale wins in Fairfield

Power & Politics: Betsy McCaughey on her run for CT governor; Rep. Himes on ICE-related unrest

Power & Politics: Meet the candidates for Fairfield first selectperson

Power & Politics: Connecticut party leaders discuss what's next in 2026

Power & Politics: Republican Sen. Fazio on Venezuela, fatal ICE shooting in Minnesota

Power & Politics: 2025 in review – Trump’s return, affordability in CT and the race for governor

Privacy Policy

Terms of Service

Ad Choices

Privacy Manager