The deputy commissioner of Connecticut’s economic development agency told Groton-area businesses this week that the state plans to change the way it helps finance new companies.
Speaking at a business breakfast, Glendowlyn Thames said the state will open the Small Business Express Program to concentrate on companies with greater needs.
“Traditionally underserved communities in distressed areas of marginalized communities do not have the same access to capital for businesses. So how can we support women- and minority-owned businesses in communities that don’t necessarily have banking institutions within their communities? So that’s how we want to use our limited resources to target those gaps.”
Thames said the state would partner more with private banking institutes in Connecticut rather than compete with them like they’ve done in the past.
Meanwhile, some heads of companies in eastern Connecticut said that the state is not friendly to business.
Peter Denious heads AdvanceCT, formerly known as Connecticut Economic Resource Center, or CERC.
“Right now we’re ranked at the bottom of the stack. We are not viewed as business-friendly. We need to improve here and part of this I think is perception, it’s not all reality. You know I think there’s a lot of misperception about the sort of structure of our state. Corporate income taxes I would say is another area where we get dinged unfairly.”
Thames said her agency wants to reverse some of these outside perceptions and bolster new initiatives like innovation and addressing the state’s workforce skills gap.