Hartford Republican Town Committee Chairman and State Central Committee Member Mike McGarry wrote an Op-Ed piece for today’s Hartford Courant, entitled, “Tax Burden Crushing LIfe Out of City Businesses”.  Some of the highlights are posted here.

“Most Hartford residents understand two basic facts about the city: Hartford’s responsibilities outweigh its resources and its government has shrunk (some departments are just shells). Nevertheless, Hartford’s Republican Party has a responsibility to comment on this year’s budget and its potentially dangerous outcomes.

The most startling and underreported statistic is the continuing overtaxation of small businesses — the heartbeat of the city. A bakery in the South End will see a property tax hike this year of more than 30 percent on top of a 20 percent increase last year — obviously unfair. Such increases are self-defeating.”

. . .

“Of course, the answer to all this, according to the tax reform task force, the mayor and the council, is more state aid. Well, sorry, folks, the man behind curtain is just that, a false hope. Hartford already gets much more state aid than any other city — $38 million more than New Haven. With this year a fiscal train wreck and next year’s state budget a potential meltdown, our city has to either reduce expenditures or raise taxes just to keep afloat. And we’ve seen the effect of overtaxation: shrinking business investment in the tools that create wealth.”