Bucks Peers’ Pessimism

Company executives from a half-dozen north-central Connecticut towns vented their frustration over the high cost of doing business in the state and called for state government to curtail spending, loosen overly restrictive regulations, and beef up technical school education programs to meet their needs.

The pleas came during a recent business roundtable at World Color Press in Enfield hosted by the Connecticut State Technical Extension Program, or CONNSTEP, in conjunction with state Sen. John A. Kissel, R-Enfield, and Lt. Gov. Michael Fidele, who is running for the Republican gubernatorial nomination.

CONNSTEP is a quasi-public agency sponsored by the state Department of Economic and Community Development to help small-to-medium-size companies to improve their businesses.

World Color Vice President and General Manger Stephen Grech was the exception in the group as the only company executive to use a positive tone.

“We’re looking at a bright future,” Grech said of his Enfield plant. Previously known as Quebecor World, World Color was created in January when Montreal-based Quebecor was merged into Wisconsin-based Quad/Graphics Inc., out of which came the World Color moniker.

Grech later said he could not disclose specifics about World Color’s plans until the merger is finalized in July. But he did say that there will be a positive development for the Enfield plant in the near future.

The rest of the business executives in the room had a different view.

Martin Seifert, president of East Granby-based laser and fiber optical products maker Nufern, flatly said the dual burdens of rising taxes and heavy regulation in Connecticut is pushing industry elsewhere.

“We vote with our feet,” Seibert said of manufacturers. It’s increasingly easy in today’s world for industries to move operations anywhere, he said. Just days later, Nufern announced it was buying a Maryland manufacturing company and would expand production there.

Krys Paluch, president of Phoenix Manufacturing in Enfield, said that the state’s technical high schools need to be upgraded to provide the types of employees needed in high-tech manufacturing.

“There is no program in Connecticut technical schools” to turn out graduates who can fill the need for such workers, Paluch said.

Kissel also said the state needs to do a better job of aligning its higher education system with the growing need for people to fill positions in engineering and science-related fields. Fidele, meanwhile, acknowledged that Connecticut hasn’t been as “business-friendly” as it could or should be. “If you’re successful, then we’re successful as a state,” he told the gathering of business leaders.