[GeoffD]

Originally Posted by kidyankee764

Fiscal incompetence and going by that article, getting worse. A look at the 2019 rates, Hartford is an eye popping 75. 75!

Nice rhetoric but it doesn't align with reality. Hartford assesses at 30% of market value. That's a real world $22.50 mill rate. For example, Longmeadow Ma in the Proposition 2 1/2 state has a $24.09 mill rate. City and town budgets are fairly fixed. You have to fund K-12 public education and that cost is fairly constant across the state. You have to fund muni services like police & fire and paving the roads. After all that required spending, there's not much left to have fiscal incompetence. Your mill rate is driven by the tax base relative to spending. Section 8 ghettos with minimal commercial real estate have a lousy tax base. Waterbury is certainly a poster child for that problem. When you use property taxes to fund K-12, this kind of disparity is what happens.

[synchem]

Originally Posted by Stylo

What's going on with Hamden? Double the mill rate of Milford? Higher mill rate than nearby New Haven?

https://www.newhavenindependent.org/...en_mill_rate_/

Similar to CT gov with regards to underfunded pensions. It eats the town finances alive.

[beerbeer]

Stanley Black & Decker picks Texas for new manufacturing plant.

Connecticut company didn't even really consider putting a new plant in Connecticut. The choice was between Texas and taxes.
https://www.courant.com/politics/hc-...lme-story.html

[JayCT]

Originally Posted by beerbeer

Stanley Black & Decker picks Texas for new manufacturing plant.

Connecticut company didn't even really consider putting a new plant in Connecticut. The choice was between Texas and taxes.
https://www.courant.com/politics/hc-...lme-story.html

I would guess that the cost-of-living difference has as much, if not more to do with it than taxes. Forth Worth's cost of living is about 17% less than Hartford. Not much that you can do to change that. Jay

https://www.bankrate.com/calculators...alculator.aspx

[JayCT]

Originally Posted by GeoffD

Nice rhetoric but it doesn't align with reality. Hartford assesses at 30% of market value. That's a real world $22.50 mill rate. For example, Longmeadow Ma in the Proposition 2 1/2 state has a $24.09 mill rate. City and town budgets are fairly fixed. You have to fund K-12 public education and that cost is fairly constant across the state. You have to fund muni services like police & fire and paving the roads. After all that required spending, there's not much left to have fiscal incompetence. Your mill rate is driven by the tax base relative to spending. Section 8 ghettos with minimal commercial real estate have a lousy tax base. Waterbury is certainly a poster child for that problem. When you use property taxes to fund K-12, this kind of disparity is what happens.

You are correct that Hartford's taxes are not as high as people think strictly going by the mill rate. That is only a small part of the equation. The better way to look at this is to compare actual taxes paid on comparable homes in comparable communities.

You keep talking about Massachusetts Proposition 2 1/2 but if you look at the actual taxes paid on comparable homes in comparable communities, you will see it did not make that significant difference really. Taking a $385,000 home in Longmeadow and comparing its taxes to taxes paid on a comparable sized home in Farmington, you will see Farmington is less ($7,711 verses $6,244). I have seen and posted similar comparisons on Boston area suburbs so I do not think Proposition 2 1/2 has made nearly the difference you claim. Jay

https://click.mail.zillow.com/f/a/05...1rulnea1_at3ii

https://click.mail.zillow.com/f/a/JH...ndtofriend-hdp

[kidyankee764]

Originally Posted by GeoffD

Nice rhetoric but it doesn't align with reality. Hartford assesses at 30% of market value. That's a real world $22.50 mill rate. For example, Longmeadow Ma in the Proposition 2 1/2 state has a $24.09 mill rate. City and town budgets are fairly fixed. You have to fund K-12 public education and that cost is fairly constant across the state. You have to fund muni services like police & fire and paving the roads. After all that required spending, there's not much left to have fiscal incompetence. Your mill rate is driven by the tax base relative to spending. Section 8 ghettos with minimal commercial real estate have a lousy tax base. Waterbury is certainly a poster child for that problem. When you use property taxes to fund K-12, this kind of disparity is what happens.

Care to tell me what you’d describe a city that incurred $755 million in debt, was on the verge of filing for bankruptcy and had to be taken over by the state?

I certainly wouldn’t view that as being a model of fiscal responsibility. YMMV.

[BobNJ1960]

Originally Posted by beerbeer

Stanley Black & Decker picks Texas for new manufacturing plant.

Connecticut company didn't even really consider putting a new plant in Connecticut. The choice was between Texas and taxes.
https://www.courant.com/politics/hc-...lme-story.html

Saw that. It is sad we were not competitive for those wonderful jobs.

.

[JayCT]

Originally Posted by beerbeer

New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu: ‘I come and poach businesses all the time’ from Connecticut and New York.

New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu took a shot at Connecticut’s lackluster economic growth Wednesday, asserting if he were governor here, “I’d fix Connecticut in 20 minutes.”

“The problem with places like New York and Connecticut and California is they don’t manage themselves, they don’t put themselves in a position to be successful because they’re worried more about the politics and less about what actually gets better results,” Sununu, a Republican, said during an in-studio interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” in New York City. “When business screamed to the state of Connecticut ‘You need to cut taxes, stop abusing us or we’re walking away,’ and then they did walk away ... what was Connecticut’s response? Nothing. It’s insulting.”

Lamont's response? “You might have your catcher’s mitt, but you’re striking out on attracting Fortune 500 companies, CT has 16 and NH has 0."

Considering that Lamont had zero to do with any of the Fortune 500 companies in Connecticut and his Democrat predecessor lost a Fortune 500 company to Massachusetts, the response is pretty lame.

https://www.courant.com/politics/cap...5py-story.html

So it’s been over a week since the Governor of New Hampshire made this boast about poaching businesses from our state. I did a search and could not find any companies that left for New Hampshire. In fact I found two companies doing the opposite. One is moving from New Hampshire to Enfield while the other is a NH based company investing $42 million in building a new facility here. I sent the NH Governors office an email asking for backup to his statement but have heard nothing from them. I also posted a question on the New Hampshire forum which no one has responded to. So if the Governor of NH is able to poach so many companies from here, why can’t I or anyone else find any? More BS. Jay

[MrGompers]

Originally Posted by JayCT

So it’s been over a week since the Governor of New Hampshire made this boast about poaching businesses from our state. I did a search and could not find any companies that left for New Hampshire. In fact I found two companies doing the opposite. One is moving from New Hampshire to Enfield while the other is a NH based company investing $42 million in building a new facility here. I sent the NH Governors office an email asking for backup to his statement but have heard nothing from them. I also posted a question on the New Hampshire forum which no one has responded to. So if the Governor of NH is able to poach so many companies from here, why can’t I or anyone else find any? More BS. Jay

In the same interview Sununu said he could fix CT's problems in 20 minutes. Obvious question is obvious has he talked to Lamont yet for 20 minutes ? If someone has an answer on how to fix state finances I don't care who the idea(s) come from. And if it only takes 20 minutes even better. That will save a lot of legislative time.

[CTartist]

Originally Posted by beerbeer

Stanley Black & Decker picks Texas for new manufacturing plant.

Connecticut company didn't even really consider putting a new plant in Connecticut. The choice was between Texas and taxes.
https://www.courant.com/politics/hc-...lme-story.html

I was thinking about this when I saw they are going to raise the minimum wage to $15 in the entire state. Although I think that parts of Fairfield County certainly need a higher minimum wage I think the higher wage will hurt the rest of CT and many residents will lose their jobs as a result of the $15.

Nice play on word in bold.