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Friday, April 16, 2010
Connecticut: friend or foe when it comes to supporting business?
How would you rate the business climate in Connecticut? Is our state anti-business? A lot of business people would agree with that claim. There’s the tax structure, the high electric rates, an aging transportation system and a regulatory process that has been known to cause even the most mild mannered among us to be uncharacteristically boisterous, blunt even. Blunt White is one of them.
Blunt, who is anything but in his dealings as a Mystic-based vice president of People’s United Bank, and as chairman of the Stonington Economic Development Commission, said something recently that deserves mention.
“The state is basically in the business prevention business,” he told those at an economic development forum organized by Stonington First Selectman Ed. Haberek.
And Blunt isn’t alone. Earlier this year, our chamber, along with the one in Mystic and the Connecticut Business & Industry Association, found that Blunt White is not alone in his assessment.
A survey we commissioned showed nearly two-thirds of eastern Connecticut businesses felt that the state legislature has had a negative impact on their ability to operate a successful business.
The same viewpoint was expressed today (April 16) when the heads of the state’s largest tourism businesses addressed a gathering we organized at the Mystic Seaport.
Tony Sheridan, president and CEO of our chamber, cited the example of a bill pending in the state legislature that would add three percent to an already high tax on the hotel room rate. That would make it higher than the tax in Manhattan, another speaker said.
Feel free to weigh in with your views on the subject, and maybe some suggestions about what should be done to ease the burden on businesses and to help save important jobs in the tourism industry.
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