Connecticut’s Lost Businesses

On July 20, the state of Connecticut reported a rather grim state of business.

According to an Associated Press report:

Susan Bysiewicz [Connecticut's secretary of state] says that in the first half of 2009, nearly 7,000 businesses shut down, a new record for the first half of any year since these figures were first recorded in 2000.

Bysiewicz says the figure represents a 17 percent increase in the number of business failures from the first two quarters of 2008.

The number of new businesses is also down. She says business starts of nearly 14,000 in the first half of 2009 are down 9.6 percent from 2008 figures.

What to do in the Nutmeg State?

Obviously, Connecticut is not alone in this bad economy. But perhaps it’s time for state and local lawmakers to take a serious look at reducing governmental costs that hurt entrepreneurs and small businesses.

For example, on the latest edition of SBE Council’s “Small Business Survival Index,” which ranks the states according to their public policy climates for entrepreneurship, Connecticut ranked a rather poor 37th – or fifteenth worst among the 50 states and District of Columbia.

Raymond J. Keating
Chief Economist
Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council