Tax Free Week for CT Shoppers, National Retailers Upbeat

Connecticut’s annual holiday from the sales tax begins on August 19 and runs through August 25. The traditional tax-free week - now in its 12th year - was threatened with elimination during last year’s budget debate at the State Legislature, but survived intact.  Tax free purchases are expected to cost the state - and save consumers - as much as $7.5 million statewide, according to the state Department of Revenue Services.  The state sales tax is 6.35 percent.  On average, it is estimated that families will spend nearly $700 on back to school purchases this year. During this third week of August, individual items of clothing and footwear that cost less than $300 are completely exempt from state sales tax.  Sports equipment, specialty clothing, jewelry and accessories are not included.  In addition, the tax free holiday week includes items valued at more but discounted to under $300 with sales, coupons and similar merchant promotions.   Store sales, catalog and on-line purchases, purchases on layaway and rentals are exempt.

For more information, individuals may call 1-800-382-9463 (for in-state calls outside the Greater Hartford Area) or 860-297-5962 (from anywhere).

The sales tax free week comes as retailers look for a boost from back-to-school sales and prepare for the holiday shopping season. The National Retail Federation’s Global Port Tracker report is showing a strong increase in imports for August, September and October – the three key months of the year when retailers import the bulk of the merchandise they will sell during the holiday season.

August imports are expected to be 6.3 percent higher than last year, September should be up 7.3 percent, and October is forecast at 13.2 percent above last year. Averaged out, that’s an 8.9 percent increase over last year, NRF reports.  Imports fall off in November and December because most holiday merchandise is already on the shelves, but each of those months is expected to be 2.4 percent above last year.  Although those numbers don’t translate directly into sales – they report the number of cargo containers coming into the country, not the value of the merchandise inside – they are seen nonetheless as a source of optimism, according to industry observers.

Stricter Laws For Teen Driving Bringing Life-saving Results

Connecticut is observing the four-year anniversary of the state’s adoption of tougher teen driving laws, and the  Department of Motor Vehicles is reporting that the laws are having the intended effect. A series of high-profile crashes in 2007 triggered a campaign that a year later brought new laws with longer periods of passenger restrictions, an 11 p.m. curfew time, stiffer penalties for violations, extended training requirements and a mandated parent-teen information session about safe driving.

According to state officials, the new laws that in 2008 brought increased restrictions, tougher training requirements and expensive penalties for violations, are credited for a steady reduction in 16- and 17-year-old drivers’ deaths.  The number of teen drivers killed in crashes fell from a high of seven in 2007 — the year before the new laws started — to one for last year.

Transportation study researchers in Trumbull, Preusser Research Group, found that Connecticut has seen a strong reduction- more than the national average - for teen driver crashes. Comparing crashes before and after the passage of new laws, Preusser found a 34 percent reduction in 16 and 17-year-olds’ crashes in Connecticut compared to a 26-percent national average.

Among the leaders of the effort to improve Connecticut's teen driving laws was Hartford attorney Tim Hollister, whose sone Reid died in a one-car accident on I-84 in December 2006.  Hollister served on a gubernatorial task force whose recommendations led to the new, stricter laws.

Under Connecticut law, 16-and 17-year-olds, for the first 6 months after obtaining a driver license, may only drive with:

• Parents or legal guardian at least one of whom holds a valid driver license
• Licensed driving instructor or
• Person providing instruction who is at least 20 years old, has held a license for at least 4 years with no suspensions during the last 4 years

For the second 6 months, may drive with the above people and may also drive with immediate family (e.g., brothers, and sisters).  And until 18 ^th birthday, may not drive between hours of 11 p.m. – 5 a.m. unless it is for:

• employment
• school
• religious activities
• medical necessity

Unaffiliated Can't Vote on Primary Day, But Numbers Grow

Primary day 2012 in Connecticut is now history (not including the recount in House District 5 in Hartford/Windsor) but it is worth a look at not only the winners and losers, but the changes in the voting rolls that may have ramifications in November.  According to the office of Secretary of the State Denise Merrill, since January 1, 2012, there have been 60,146 new voters registered in towns and cities across Connecticut. The breakdown:  26,758 registered as unaffiliated (and as such they could not vote in the party primaries), 19,827 Democratic and 12,256 Republican.  The statewide registration totals:  818,545 unaffiliated, 724,110 Democratic and 413,470 Republican.

Data Visualization Images Seek to Define Political Season

For an interesting look-back at the 2012 session of the Connecticut state legislature, there is the data visualization designed by Readily Apparent, a Connecticut-based company founded by Brendan Hanrahan and David Smith as a means of visually conveying insights that can be gained with the use of relational data designs and dynamic graphics. Their areas of focus include Data Visualization - compelling visuals, tables, animations to reveal the meaning of information – as well as data design and management, legislative tracking and analysis and opposition research for candidates.

Their clickable tree-map gives a “30,000-foot view” of activity by policy area for the 2012 Connecticut General Assembly session--with click-thru drill-downs to related bills and details.  For legislative researchers – not to mention candidates – gathering basic data has never been this easy.  Additional data visualizations are on the company’s website.

$3 million in federal transportation funds headed to CT

Federal funds from the Department of Transportation are headed to Connecticut to help maintain Connecticut’s roads and bridges, preserve historic landmarks and make communities more livable.  The announcement was made by the state’s Congressional delegation. Where is the money headed?

• $850,000 to the City of Stamford for the replacement of the West Main Street Bridge over the Mill River, which will enhance pedestrian access to Downtown Stamford.
• $500,000 to the City of Torrington for improvements and streetscape enhancements to Torrington’s Main Street and downtown.
• $325,000 to the Town of Mansfield to provide new transit access to Mansfield Hollow Lake
• $788,724 to the Connecticut Department of Transportation to improve the terminal facilities for the Rocky Hill-Glastonbury Ferry, the oldest continuously operating ferry in the nation.
• $400,000 to Connecticut Department of Transportation to use innovation bridge construction techniques to replace a bridge over the Saugatuck River in Weston
• $300,000 to Connecticut Department of Transportation to rehabilitate and preserve the Cornwall Covered Bridge through the National Historic Covered Bridge Preservation Program.

Ryan Flew to Hartford En Route to Receiving Romney's VP Offer

Question:  If you are the soon-to-be Republican nominee for President of the United States and you’d like to have a private meeting with your prospective running mate, just outside of Boston, how do you secretly get him there?  Answer:  Have him fly into Hartford. NBC News is reporting that when Gov. Mitt Romney met with Rep. Paul Ryan on August 5 in Brookline, MA where he offered the VP slot on the GOP national ticket, Ryan had driven from his Wisconsin home to Chicago, and took a flight to Hartford.   Ryan was met at Bradley International Airport by the 19-year-old son of Beth Myers, who headed the Romney campaign’s  VP vetting operation, and he drove Ryan, undetected by the news media, to the Myers home in Brookline where Romney was waiting.

So, let history record that Connecticut's Bradley International Airport  - the second largest in New England, contributing $4 billion in economic activity in the region - was the Gateway to New England, Mitt Romney and the Vice Presidential nomination for a Congressman from Wisconsin in 2012.

Still revolutionary, as advertised.

Audience for EPSN morning simulcast larger with TV, radio

An Arbitron-ESPN study of the audience of the ESPN RADIO-ESPN2 morning show "Mike and Mike in the Morning" showed most fans listening to the show on radio or watching on TV, but those using both spending "much more time" with the show. Among the study's findings were that the show reached4.7 million weekly in November 2011 through April2012, with radio delivering 2.3 million exclusive weekly listeners, cable adding 1.6 million exclusive viewers, and 800,000 using both radio and TV.  Dual media users were 17% of the audience but responsible for 28% of weekly usage, according to the results of the cross-platform study by ESPN and Arbitron Inc.

The cross-platform study detailed how fans in markets measured by the Arbitron Portable People Meter™(PPM^®) service listened to the ESPN sport talk duo on radio and watched the simulcast on ESPN2 cable television.

Also among the findings:

• Radio remains the quintessential out of home medium. 59 percent of the Persons 6+ average quarter hour audience for radio listens outside of the home.
• Only 5 percent of the average audience delivered by cable TV came from out from home locations.

Remembering Connecticut's Vietnam Veterans

Connecticut residents can now memorialize a family member or friend who died in the Vietnam War, by responding to a national "Call for Photos" that seeks to provide the faces, stories, and remembrances of the names on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial (commonly known as “the Wall”) in Washington, DC.  To ensure that 100% of Connecticut’s fallen are remembered, the Connecticut Department of Veterans’ Affairs and the Veterans History Project at Central Connecticut State University are working with volunteers and teachers in the state to collect photos and remembrances of Connecticut’s 612 fallen who do not yet have photos on the VVM’s Virtual Wall.  As of the end of July, photos have been collected for less than half of those killed from Connecticut. The national “Call for Photos” campaign aims to attach faces to the 58,284 names memorialized on the Wall. The Education Center will create a Wall of Faces exhibit to display all collected digital photographs once the Center is constructed.  As of late July, just two states have collected 100 percent of their photos – New Mexico and North Carolina. Nationwide, just 35 percent have been collected. Approximately 4 million people visit the Vietnam Memorial each year.

Further information about the initiative in Connecticut is available from the Veterans History Project at  CCSU, from Eileen Hurst, Associate Director of the Center for Public Policy & Social Research, at 860-832-2976.

Fastest Growing Technology Companies in CT Recognized

The Connecticut Technology Council (CTC) and Marcum LLP have announced the 2012 Marcum Tech Top 40 list of the 40 fastest growing technology companies in Connecticut.  The list includes primarily privately held companies, but 10 public companies also made the list, including:  Priceline.com, FuelCell Energy and Alexion Pharmaceuticals.  The breakdown by counties:  13 in Hartford County, 12 in Fairfield County, 10 in New Haven County.  Alexion, which recently announced plans to be an anchor in New Haven’s Downtown Crossing development, was highlighted in an op-ed in the New Haven Register. Winners are grouped into six areas of technology:  Software, IT Services, Life Sciences, Advanced Manufacturing, New Media/Internet/Telecom, and Energy/Environmental Technologies.  Eligible companies must have revenues of $3 Million and have been in business at least four years.  The companies will be honored on September 27 at Oakdale Theater in Wallingford.  The complete list (asterisk indicate first appearance on the annual list): Advanced Manufacturing: APS Technology, Wallingford Dymax Corporation, Torrington EDAC Technologies Corp., Farmington Foster Corporation, Putnam Reflexite Corporation, Avon RSL Fiber Systems, LLC, East Hartford

Energy/Environment/Green Technology FuelCell Energy, Inc., Danbury Precision Combustion Inc, North Haven Proton OnSite, Wallingford STR Holdings, Inc., Enfield

IT Services Cervalis LLC, Shelton *Datto Inc., Norwalk *iSend, LLC, Middlebury OpenSky Corporation, Tolland *PCNet, Inc., Trumbull *Systems Integration Inc., Wethersfield *VLink Inc, Hartford

Life Sciences Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Cheshire Bio-Med Devices, Inc., Guilford Defibtech, LLC, Guilford Metrum Research Group, LLC, Tariffville

New Media/Internet/Telecom *EasySeat, LLC, Plainville HealthPlanOne LLC, Shelton JobTarget, LLC, New London M2 Media Group, Stamford Priceline.com, Inc., Norwalk TicketNetwork, South Windsor *WebMediaBrands, Inc., Norwalk

Software Adeptra, Inc., Norwalk Core Informatics, LLC, Branford *ePath Learning, Inc., New London *eVariant, Inc., Simsbury Evolution1, Inc, Avon *FitLinxx, Inc., Shelton Higher One, Inc., New Haven

Eastern, Middlesex Named Great Colleges to Work For

Eastern Connecticut State University and Middlesex Community College were the only Connecticut institutions included among 103 college and universities nationwide named as Great Colleges to Work For in the latest annual survey by The Chronicle of Higher Education. In an article accompanying the list of institutions, The Chronicle reported that “Open channels of communication, along with concrete ways of appreciating employees and helping them balance work and home, are hallmarks of great academic workplaces. At colleges, such policies have become more important as a slow national economy delays or shrinks raises.”

The Chronicle reported that the 2012 survey had the largest number of responses in its five-year history—about 47,000 college employees completed questionnaires, up from 44,000 in 2011. About 20,000 of the questionnaires this year were filled out by faculty, 8,500 by administrators, and nearly 18,000 by exempt professional staff. In all, participants represented 294 institutions. The survey was administered by ModernThink LLC  in partnership with The Chronicle.  The colleges and universities were analyzed in 12 categories, and submitted applications to be considered  for the designation.

Middlesex CC, with just under 3,000 students, was especially recognized for its compensation and benefits, with The Chronicle stating that “Paternity and maternity leaves can be as long as six months, and health-insurance coverage extends into retirement.”  It is the first time that Middlesex has been included in The Chronicle’s list.

Eastern was recognized in three categories: collaborative governance, compensation and benefits, and facilities, workplace and security.   The Chronicle noted that “The University Senate brings together executives, midlevel managers, and professors for twice-monthly meetings during the academic year. The president meets at least twice every semester with the leaders of the six campus unions.”  Eastern was selected for the fourth consecutive year.  The school has approximately 5,600 students.

Among the 103 institutions to receive the “Great College to Work For” designation, 42 were also selected for the “Honor Roll.”  Neither Connecticut institution made that list.