SMALL BUSINESS REACTION TO GOVERNOR MALLOY'S STATE OF THE STATE
HARTFORD (February 3, 2016): In response to
Governor Malloy’s State of the State remarks, the following statement may be
attributed to Andrew Markowski, Connecticut state director of the National
Federation of Independent Business (NFIB):
In light of several months of bad news for Connecticut’s economy
including national recognition by the Tax Foundation and others that the tax
climate here is one of the worst in the nation, as well as the departure of a
major corporation along with many small businesses from the state because
of vast economic uncertainties that exist here, small business owners were
eagerly anticipating today’s speech. The Governor had the opportunity to use
the state of the state as a platform to begin substantial restructuring in
Hartford and we believe that he set the right tone with his message
today. With each passing year, businesses have been forced to adapt to
increases on everything from wages to utilities by reducing their spending yet
lawmakers in Hartford have refused to adapt. Today Governor Malloy said
that the days of spending outside of state revenue are over and we applaud him
for accepting this new economic reality.
To hear that the unsustainable pension and post-employment costs will
finally be addressed was a tremendous relief for our members and will result in
the long term stabilization of our economy and increase the confidence that the
next generation of tax payers will not be burdened with the mistakes of the
past. It is imperative that members of the legislature rally behind
Governor Malloy and commit to avoiding tax increases at any level now and in
the future.
Today’s remarks were a great start and demonstrated a tremendous shift
in the thinking that has traditionally come out of the Capitol. We appreciated
the Governor’s proposal to focus on small business tax relief but calling
for an exemption from the personal property tax for businesses with
property valued at $10,000 or less is simply not going to cut it. Small
business owners certainly have more valuable things to do with their time than
filling out government forms and inventorying how many paper clips or Post-It
notes they have on hand every year, but there are other ways to provide
the small business community with tax relief and it would have also been nice
to have the Governor renew his call from last year to fully repeal the business
entity tax. Also notably absent from today’s speech, Governor Malloy
unfortunately failed to mention that he will not support any new mandates on
businesses, a message that the business community was hoping to hear.
Overall, the Governor set the right tone today and we are
hopeful that the legislature will heed his vision for reforming
state government and the budget process both in the short and long terms.
