Upon closer inspection, most of the jobs are moving to Massachusetts (a state which its own residents call "Tax-achusetts"). This "Universal Health Care State" (yes, unlike Obamacare which is a health plan that doesn't actually give away insurance, Massachusetts insures everyone) has an advantage on Connecticut in higher education. Companies flock to the Boston/Worcester/Route 9 Corridor because - there's a ton of universities that prepare people for science jobs... Harvard, MIT, Tufts, etc... and people are younger in that area than they are in Connecticut - less experience, lower salaries. Massachusetts is actually ranked the 25th best state for corporations to do business. Also the Route 9 Corridor is loaded with other science-tech companies. Connecticut's only other major pharma is Pfizer, a company that has made some pretty horrible purchasing decisions lately and once spent 249 million dollars to open a research center they closed two years later - note, when Pfizer lost all those Connecticut jobs, where were the people who are attacking Malloy now to attack felon ex-governor John Rowland? Somehow his sketchy plan to give corporations money to move into the states was less sketchy than that of Malloy?
Here is where I feel bad for people. All three areas where the jobs are moving from Wallingford are way more expensive areas to live (San Francisco, CA, Cambridge MA and Livingston, NJ - a very wealthy suburb of New York.) And as far as California and New Jersey, worse states to do business (tax-wise) than Connecticut. I actually worked on that same road on the Meriden side for half a dozen years before my office was closed (we all kept our jobs, fortunately) so that offices could remain open in New York and California - and that company with those jobs in those places crumbled (one reason because running an arts and entertainment/technology company in Orange County, CA is about as good a fit as a pharmaceutical company in CT - and in my old company's case, the only local rival had a lot more money). I used walk behind the Wallingford Bristol Meyer Squibb building at lunch sometimes. Beautiful campus. Probably will remain empty for some time while all the former co-workers look at trying to afford a house in Cambridge or San Francisco - maybe they'll have to pay more for employees - but at least they can recycle industry workers like we do in Hartford with our insurance jobs.
Putting Dan Malloy in charge was like taking a rookie manager and putting him in charge of a last place NBA team that traded away all its draft picks. The problems in Connecticut started way before him and a lot of it comes from the fact that Connecticut and its wealthy are writing large checks to Washington and not to Hartford. Malloy, who is surprisingly popular outside the state among democrats, isn't even popular among his own party in the state, especially after making concessions to big business at the expense of services democrats covet. Malloy's interview on liberal beacon WNPR are cringe-worthy. Malloy has made a lot of mistakes, but this company leaving the state - it's not on him.
