GROW CT, GROW.

Well it's official, CT is inching its way back as far as the economy is concerned. Just recently, the US Bureau of Economic Analysis announced that CT's economy perked up by 2.1% this past quarter. That's three times in a row we've seen a plus versus a negative in the state. It's small, but a mighty achievement considering all the bad news folks are trying to spread about where CT is going and why folks should pick up and depart for sunnier spots.

In 2019, we saw a 7.5% growth in our GDP compared to 2018 with only a 0.5% growth. The particular areas that CT saw growth are interesting: retail, professional services, scientific and technical services and whole sale trades. Unfortunately the durable goods category, aka manufacturing, only grew by 0.5% and our beloved insurance and finance sector didn't fare well, falling by 0.55%.

So while CBIA reports that CT is great at growing and replacing manufacturing jobs, we are a bit slow on the re-tooling of insurance and finance jobs. It looks like the legislature should pay particular attention to that fact in that they have tended to look to the finance world (aka hedge funds) to make up any state deficits or to tap them as wealthy 1%ers who should shoulder a higher rate of taxation than other industries. This might not be a prudent things to do until CT figures out what it wants to be when it finally grows up.

An interesting point to note by CBIA recently was that CT is lumped in a pool of other states where the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia predicted the state's GDP will decline in the next six months. While the Federal Reserve Bank held off raising interest rates to help spur continued growth, it would not be the time for CT's legislature to tap the one sector that's very mobile and nervous about how CT digs its way out of continuous yearly budget deficits.

One good note is that CT's budget looks like its settling in the black versus the red category for another quarter, and that should mean a quiet tax cycle for CT businesses and consumers this session. From budget estimates recently published by the legislature's Office of Fiscal Analysis (OLR), we know that state overtime spending is back on the rise as well as the state's Medicaid program growth. While the costs have been held tight, the eligibility and lack of a residency threshold in CT makes it a draw. With a shift to a value-based systems, officials are hoping to take even more advantage of lower costs and expanding the provider pool. (It's important to note that CT reports one of the lowest uninsured rates in the country - 185,000 uninsured residents or a 5% rate. Not bad.) Though as the session is ready to open the initiative to pass a public option for healthcare along with the soon to be effective higher minimum wage law, we predict that there's going to be a continued look at healthcare costs and the impact on state budgets.

More details will start to emerge on the state of the 2019 state budget, especially since the Governor will address the legislature on February 5th, the Opening Day of the legislative session and fill in the blanks on exactly how we are doing. Don't miss it! But if you do, you can catch up next week with In the Loop and find out all the details.

In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell received a U.S. Patent for the first practical telephone design.

The earliest telephones, however, were extremely limited. It wasn't until a New Haven inventor by the name of George Willard Coy created the world's first commercial telephone exchange.

On January 28, 1878, Coy's telephone exchange, under the aegis of the District Telephone Company of New Haven, went live, ushering the world into a new age of live, long-distance, and convenient communication. 

For its first month of operation, the District Telephone Company had twenty-one subscribers - mostly businesses and government offices - who paid $1.50 a month for the service. Less than a month later, the number of subscribers had more than doubled, inspiring Coy to publish the world's first telephone directory on February 21 - a one-page listing of all fifty subscribers on his exchange.  

The switchboard quickly became a fundamental feature of telephone communications the world over, and Coy's company, which renamed itself the Southern New England Telephone company in 1882, and would become one of New England's most influential companies of the 20th century.