Connecticut budget fallout worries Northwest Corner legislators [Register-Citizen]

Register Citizen

REGISTER CITIZEN State Sen. Kevin Witkos and State Rep. Jay Case spoke with members of the Northwest Hills Council of Governments at its regular meeting Thursday in Torrington.

TORRINGTON >> State legislators and representatives of the Northwest Hills Council of Governments are raising concerns about the effects on economic activity in the region that could result from the recently-passed state budget.

State Rep. Jay Case of Winchester and state Sen. Kevin Witkos of Canton, both Republicans, last week shared their concerns about the recently-passed budget, including tax increases that raised objections from corporations that are major employers in the region, including Aetna, General Electric and Traveler’s Insurance.

“The full-court press that these companies are putting out there, it’s unheard of,” said Witkos, who cited a decrease in the net operating loss carry forward credit, an overall decrease in tax credits, and the creation of a new “unitary tax,” as the chief concerns of these businesses. “Folks that I’ve talked to, in the past 25 years, they’ve never spoken out.”

“We have multiple manufacturers throughout the Northwest Corner that are feeder companies to these large corporations, and we’re concerned about those small companies because Connecticut is built on the backs of small businesses,” said Case. “So that’s something we really have to take a look at.

Case also spoke about the need to increase public transportation options in the northwest corner, which he said, at this time, are non-existent.

“I think people in the northwest corner would like to know where the transportation is in the Northwest Corner — because there is none. But we have a $100 million initiative out there for transportation, so we would like to know what’s coming to the northwest corner to help out. So that’s a big question in the legislature right now, because the big piece of that goes to the major cities,” Case said. “Getting people to our large corporations, like Becton Dickinson up in Canaan, all of our large manufacturers that we do have here in Torrington, transportation is a big issue, because a lot of people, given the economy, can’t afford the cars, can’t afford the fuel. They want a public transportation system to get them back and forth.”

COG members responded with concerns about aspects of the budget, including changes to the way car taxes are assessed in the state, and the increased tax burden for major businesses.

“I was talking to a former legislator, former state commissioner, and he’s an interested bystander in this, even though he’s retired from active service. His view was a lot of what’s going on in Hartford today is pitting the large cities against the small towns,” said Barkhamsted First Selectman Don Stein, who also serves as the chair of the COG. “We’re getting the outfall of these great issues that people think up for New Haven, Bridgeport, Hamden, whatever, and it’s of no benefit to the small towns, and in fact it detracts from our ability to function. I think that’s a real issue. When you have Hartford pitting the two forces against each other, really is a very difficult challenge. And the big cities have great challenges that we don’t know how to deal out here — thank goodness, we don’t have those challenges. But somebody’s got to balance the two objectives of making the small towns healthy, creating jobs in this rural area, because people otherwise leave, versus those issues in the larger cities. I don’t envy you that challenge.”