Carla Squatrito, founder of Carla’s Pasta in South Windsor, gave $1,000 to the Connecticut Democratic Party last month, following up on another $1,000 donation in November.
Squatrito is a regular contributor to Democratic candidates and political action committees, giving $48,150 since 1999, according to the Federal Elections Commission. She made state-level contributions as recently as 2011, but as a recipient of state funds can no longer do so. Her recent donations to the state party went to its federal account.
The federal account allows state contractors and recipients of state funds to avoid the ban on their political donations.
Last year, the Department of Economic and Community Development awarded Carla’s Pasta a $4 million forgivable loan to fund an expansion project.
In 2012, Carla’s Pasta received a $2.2 million loan and $750,000 grant from the state to install a fuel cell.
“In Connecticut, the government works,” company vice president Sergio Squatrito told CT News Junkie when Gov. Dannel Malloy visited the new fuel cell. “Too many times businesses don’t step up and say ‘without the government this would not be happening.’”