Senate President Says Latest Connecticut Unemployment Rate Underscores Importance of Jobs Bill

Senate Bill 1 would cut taxes for at least 46,000 small ‘mom and pop’ businesses, expand access to credit for companies

Hartford: Senate President Donald E. Williams, Jr. (D-Brooklyn) says the latest unemployment numbers for Connecticut underscore the importance of the General Assembly passing a jobs bill this legislation session. According to the state Department of Labor, the unemployment rate in Connecticut for January was 9 percent, up from 8.8 in December. While the Connecticut unemployment rate is still below the national rate of 9.7 percent, any increase is cause for concern.

The unemployment rate in the Willimantic-Danielson labor market—which includes Senator Williams’ senate district—is 11.3 percent. The number in the Norwich-New London market is 9 percent.

“Since the global recession began in 2008 Connecticut has lost more than 100,000 jobs—it’s time to start getting them back,” said Senator Williams. “Senate Bill 1 would offer targeted tax relief to small ‘mom and pop’ businesses, and expand access to credit for other companies. We must get Connecticut working again and our jobs bill will help do that.”

Senate Bill 1, which is awaiting the approval of the Finance, Revenue, and Bonding Committee, does the following:

• Exempts small ‘mom and pop’ businesses with annual net incomes of $50,000 or less from the $250 business entity tax for two years. (The Office of Fiscal Analysis estimates that at least 46,000 small businesses would be affected).
• Establishes a program to provide loans and loan guarantees to companies with fewer than 50 employees, and authorizes up to $20 million in state general obligation bonding to fund the program.
• Imposes a temporary surcharge of 8.97 percent in lieu of regular state income tax on bonuses of $1 million or more paid or awarded by companies that received direct funding from the federal Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) or certain of their affiliates.

“The multi-billion dollar TARP bailout helped save the big banks and now they’re back to handing out multi-billion dollar bonuses to their executives,” said Senator Williams. “Our plan includes a temporary surcharge on million dollar bank bonuses—with all the revenue going directly to small businesses.”