4th District Candidates Joust on Job Creation

With a state unemployment rate of 8.5 percent many Connecticut voters are concerned.

Moreover, the Federal Reserve recently forecast that the jobless rate would hover between 9.2 percent and 9.5 percent nationwide in the last quarter of 2010. Other than Michigan, Connecticut is the only state to see negative job growth since 1989.

This frustration over jobs comes as the campaign for Connecticut's 4th District marches ahead. In less than three weeks, Republican voters will decide who gets the GOP nomination – Dan Debicella, Rob Merkle, or Rick Torres. And in less than four months Wiltonians, together with the rest of the district, will decide whether to send Rep. Jim Himes back to Congress or to send him packing.

All four candidates agree something must be done. It's what to do that puts them at odds.

"Job-creation legislation Rep. Himes helped pass is having a direct impact in local communities," said Himes' communications director Elizabeth Kerr. "The Congressman is working hard to improve lending for small businesses and recently helped pass the HIRE Act, a new law that provides tax incentives to companies that hire people who are without jobs."

Access to credit is the best way to help small businesses, said Himes' office. In addition, Himes said he favors extending middle class tax cuts for a limited time period. Tax cuts are slated to expire at the end of the year.

Himes supported a small business-lending fund to make it easier for community banks to lend money. He held a government procurement workshop in Norwalk last year to help small businesses learn how to navigate the world of government contracts.

All three GOP candidates say they aim to lower taxes as a means to attract business to the Nutmeg State. They also say limiting government's role will raise the job rate.

"Connecticut's business environment is not conducive to growth," said Republican Rick Torres, who is running in the Aug. 10 primary. "We are the second greatest taxed district in the nation. We pay five times higher taxes than the national average. If we were taxed at the national level we'd keep billions in the people's pockets."

But according to a report published by the non-profit Connecticut Economic Resource Center that's not the case.

"In absolute terms, Connecticut residents pay a relatively large share," according to CERC. "According to tax rates, however, Connecticut is ranked in the middle nationally, ranked in the middle for the Northeast, and follows national progressive and regressive trends for each of the total tax components. Connecticut is nowhere near the lowest-taxing state, but at the same time, it is also nowhere near being the highest."

To woo businesses to the state, GOP candidate Rob Merkle said he favors eliminating the corporate tax and introducing a flat tax of 20 percent.

"Connecticut has twice the debt as California and can't afford it. We want better taxes, and smaller government," said Merkle during a Town Hall meeting earlier this month.

Republican Dan Debicella sees small businesses as the key to recovery.

"My No. 1 focus as a state senator was job creation. The government doesn't create jobs for people, but it can help with small business," Debicella said, adding that he would eliminate the corporate tax in order to attract businesses to the state.

Echoing Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's recent testimony before Congress, economists in the state say Connecticut shouldn't bank on a robust economic recovery. In fact, employment may shrink in the next few months.

"While the legislature has passed and the governor signed some significant business legislation that should improve Connecticut's performance a few years hence, there are no policy initiatives likely to drive a strong short-term recovery," according to Peter E. Gunther, a senior research fellow at the Connecticut Center of Economic Analysis at University of Connecticut.