Insurance company Aetna is looking to relocate its headquarters out of Hartford Connecticut.
The state’s Democrat Governor, Dannel (not a misspelling) Malloy is begging them not to leave. Malloy enacted major tax increases in 2009, 2011, and 2015. The 2017 budget calls for still more tax increases, but not nearly enough to cover the state’s $5 Billion deficit. Connecticut already has, after New Jersey, the 2nd highest tax burden in the country.
Aetna is apparently looking to New York or Boston for its headquarters, so it’s not really taxes or regulation that it’s fleeing. However, the onerous taxes and horrendous cost of living in New York or Boston is made up for because you can get a decent bagel and Bhutanese take-out at 3:00 in the morning. This makes it worth it to some people; some not very wise people.
But Hartford can’t compete on that playing field. No matter how much money the mayor extorts from the state to try and build a “vibrant and culturally diverse” city and neighborhoods, it’s always going to be a shadow of New York and Boston. You too, Providence RI. And hardly anybody who has a choice is going to live in Connecticut’s brutal tax environment AND a declining, third tier city. It’s not like the state has lovely scenery or good weather.
To compete with surrounding states, Connecticut ought to create a low-tax, business-friendly environment that would make the state economically competitive with its neighbors. But lowering taxes and reducing Government is anathema to the left-wing Democrats who monopolize power there. The best they can do is pander… politician to big business crony… and offer Aetna the kind of tax breaks and other fiscal relief that smaller businesses in the state do not get.
BTW, isn’t Aetna the kind of company Democrats want to put completely out of business with Single Payer Health Care?
Only politicians can screw this up this much!!! Hartford used to be known as the insurance capital of America!
Until the 1960’s, Detroit was the wealthiest (per capita) city in the United States.
If your corporate tax and regulatory costs are equal, you are easily better-off being in Boston to attract the best and brightest compared to middle of nowhere Hartford or bankrupt Bridgeport. That’s a no-brainer…
Second and third tier cities in high-tax and heavily regulated states are dead-meat. Especially for businesses dependent on talent versus capital. And capital is more fungible than ever. Proximity is no-longer a factor in most industries in the Age of the Internet.
Have you ever seen the major cities in Connecticut like Hartford, New Haven, New London and Bridgeport? They’re all real ****holes!
But how is that possible, pawfurbehr? My understanding is that high taxes always make for high quality of life, and almost nobody beats Connecticut for taxes. Government always makes wiser spending decisions than individuals, and Connecticut’s generous “investments,” in “excellent schools, universities, and a generous safety net” to quote one of the links should have made the mistake as close to Utopia as a state can tax and spend itself to.
Why isn’t it working? Why is the state a sh-thole with massive deficits?
I wish one of our friends on the left could explain this, but they seem to be avoiding this thread for some reason.
The urban cities of high-tax New Jersey are practically the National watch-words for decayed hellholes; Camden, Newark, Jersey City, Atlantic City, even the state capital of Trenton. Ungovernable, corrupt, once-vibrant industrial powerhouses descended into crime-riddled burned-out kill-zones.
Dannel is a Teutonic name meaning “God is my judge.”
New haven has great pizza
Just asking – has Aetna availed itself of any tax breaks, incentives, credits, or other gov’t-granted favors?
Is Aetna being enticed by gov’t-granted goodies from another jurisdiction?
I think it’s cooled off a bit here but Kansas and Missouri have been known to engage in bidding wars to entice KC-area businesses to remain in or flee to the other state in return for tax increment financing, job credits, property tax abatements, etc. (Of course, it’s large businesses only with staffs of lawyers; mom & pops just gat to make up the difference.)
My bet is that the management of Aetna, like the management of most large businesses is “cult-Marx”: open-borders, social justice, and institutional virtue signaling positions. They just want others to pay for it (socialize cost; privatize profits).