Markley Tours Southington Plant for National Manufacturing Month

Christopher Budnick, Pres. Vanguard Plastics Corporation and Sen. Joe Markley

Hartford, CT – Senator Joe Markley (R-Southington) visited Vanguard Plastics in Southington on Tuesday, October 2. Sen. Markley toured the plant with Christopher Budnick, President of Vanguard Plastics Corporation.

“My father and uncle operated a small manufacturing business for years in Southington and Cheshire, the New England Gear Works. I grew up with an understanding of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and the blessing a business success can be to the community,” said Sen. Markley.

Budnick showed Markley the injection molding process used to make plastic components.

“This is a fantastic operation, state of the art and competitive with any supplier in the world,” Markley said. “It’s also a

family business, where everyone is part of the team and takes pride in what they do. Small manufacturers like Vanguard Plastics made Connecticut prosperous and America strong.”

According to a new poll commissioned by the National Association of Manufacturers and the National Federation of Independent Businesses, 55 percent of small business owners and manufacturers would not have started their businesses in today’s economy.

“How do we lower that number in the future?” remarked Sen. Markley. “One way we can restore business owners’ confidence is to stabilize our state’s finances. We just witnessed the largest tax hike in state history. That tax hike – which I voted against – was crushing to our economy. The governor recently said he is not ruling out another tax hike next year. We can’t expect entrepreneurs to take risks when we keep changing the rules on them.”

Senator Markley believes legislators need to be clear that they will not raise taxes next year.

“We must cut spending, carefully but significantly and we must eliminate onerous and unnecessary regulations, which plague every business person in Connecticut. I am determined to see that other innovators have a chance to succeed, and I want to make sure established companies can remain and thrive in Connecticut,” said Sen. Markley.