At the Yankee Institute, I have a brief tout for a new study they’ve published regarding Connecticut’s Jekyll-and-Hyde attitude toward business in the state, wherein corporations are heavily taxed until they threaten to depart — at which point Hartford throws some corporate welfare at them.
Proponents of the tax increases estimated $481 million in receipts from corporations for the two-year period, but in reality the taxes only brought in $323 million — just 67 percent of what they originally projected.
But during that time, the state’s Department of Economic and Community Development shelled out nearly $358 million in grants or loans to businesses to either move to Connecticut or, if they were already here, to stay put.
Many of the recipients of the DECD’s largesse are hardly strapped for cash and the economic incentives from the state did little to keep them from ultimately deciding to relocate.
United Technologies is the latest giant corporation to relocate its HQ outside the state even though they’ve received tax credits from Connecticut.
Meanwhile, HB 7222, which I reported on back in March, has died in committee. The bill sought to expand the power of the attorney general in the name of civil rights but was opposed as an encroachment upon other offices in the state.
