Governor told region's recovery lagging that of rest of state
Mohegan — Gov. Dannel P. Malloy spoke at a Chamber of Commerce of Eastern Connecticut event here early Wednesday morning before delivering budget-cutting proposals hours later at a cabinet meeting with state commissioners in East Hartford.
Malloy was brief and generally upbeat in his remarks at Mohegan Sun, where he fielded a question about the challenges southeastern Connecticut faces in replacing lost jobs and a call for the extension of rail service to Mystic and Westerly.
While the governor said Connecticut has added 27,000 jobs in the last year, Kathleen Stauffer, chief executive officer of The Arc New London County, the Norwich-based nonprofit, noted that southeastern Connecticut continues to lag behind other parts of the state in recovering from the Great Recession.
“We’ve lost 5,000 jobs,” Stauffer said, referring to positions — many of them good-paying — that she said began disappearing in the mid-1990s.
Interests in the region have formed what amounts to a task force that needs to determine “what an economic recovery looks like in southeastern Connecticut” and how it can be achieved, she said.
Stauffer asked Malloy to appoint a member of his administration to work with the group.
In a phone interview later Wednesday, Stauffer said she agreed with Malloy’s focus on improving the state’s transportation infrastructure, which he again touted to chamber members.
“He’s right about transportation,” she said. “If you ask business people about the biggest obstacle to their success, they will say transportation infrastructure.”
Malloy’s 30-year transportation plan calls for widening Interstate 95, which runs through southeastern Connecticut, including improvements to the Gold Star Memorial Bridge, which spans the Thames River between New London and Groton.
Otherwise, Stauffer said, “the news is getting better in other places than here.”
She said much-needed economic diversification in the region has failed to occur and that social-service agencies are struggling to keep up with their caseloads.
Stephen Bessette, a former Stonington selectman, also addressed Malloy, urging the extension of Shore Line East rail service from New London to Mystic and as far east as Westerly, “potentially, with a stop in Groton.”
After the meeting, Bessette, who maintains a Facebook page dedicated to the subject, said extending Shore Line East service would benefit the community and help relieve traffic congestion.
The governor was receptive, saying his transportation plan calls for expanding bus and train service whenever it is cost-effective to do so.
Twitter: @bjhallenbeck
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