Jobs For Connecticut Now

For many business owners in Rhode Island, this week may have seemed like their worst nightmare.

According to an article in yesterday’s Providence Journal, the state shocked more than 1,200 businesses by notifying them that “they are out of business unless they pay their overdue sales tax immediately.”

The majority were small and medium sized businesses who have been hurt by the recession and have been struggling to pay their taxes.  Unbelievably,  others had in fact already paid their taxes and had the canceled checks to prove it.  But that was not enough for the officials who came to shut them down.  The business owners had to shut their establishments and trek to the Division of Taxation in Providence, where they waited in a line to straighten things out.  Some had to make frantic calls to vendors to explain why their restaurant was closed when they arrived to make deliveries. Others ran out to feed expiring parking meters.

One exasperated person in line was Pawtucket clothing manufacturer Jessica Bahl, who brought proof that the state had already cashed her check.

 “The economy is [terrible], people are hardly staying in business. I had to shut down my business for a day to come here and do this and they already got my check. So why am I here?” a frustrated Bahl said.

“And then they send someone over to scare me in front of my customers?” she continued. “It’s ridiculous … It’s embarrassing.”

To be fair, it is up to a business to pay its taxes, and the state sent out several warning letters over a few months.  But in these tough times, state officials should have tried to be more accommodating and work with struggling business owners to collect the unpaid taxes.  The heavyhanded tactics used this week do nothing but embarrass hardworking business people and put people out of work, even temporarily in a very difficult economy.

That’s the “Today’s Buzz” poll question in the Hartford Courant.  The response so far: three-quarters of those voting answered in the negative.  This echoes what Jobs for New England Now co-chair Stephen Bull said in an op-ed published in the Hartford Business Journal recently.  The title, “Friendlier Business Climate Needed,” was prophetic.

The Courant poll and accompanying comments illustrate the obstacles facing businesspeople in the state today.  Simply put, they don’t feel welcome in Connecticut.  Chalk it up to various problems – high tax burden, hostility to business by some elected leaders, a willingness by some legislators to ram though requirements such as mandatory health insurance that will further squeeze small businesses.  They are evidence of a systemic bias against business, which is hardly the prescription for growth in this economy.

Some other states are waging aggressive campaigns to woo businesses to relocate. Connecticut needs to show that it can compete to attract the kinds of companies that will grow the economy.   Unless there is a change in the atmosphere in Hartford, we can expect to see a continuation of the attitude reflected in the poll.

The Providence Business Journal reported that Rhode Island has been losing jobs faster than any other state in the New England region.  Employment in Rhode Island began to decline in January 2007, and has not stopped falling yet, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Other states in New England, including Massachusetts and New Hampshire, did not see a decline in employment until March 2008, more than a year after the job slump began in Rhode Island.  In 12 months, the state’s employment has dropped 4.6%, and statewide employment is at its lowest since 1999.  Like many neighboring New England states, Rhode Island’s construction, retail and manufacturing industries have suffered the most in this recession.

Now is the time for policymakers across the New England region to take action to encourage business growth, incentivize investment, and create an environment that will foster job retention.  Economic growth and development will help to pull our region out of this recession and create jobs and new economic opportunities for residents.  There is no time like the present to take measures that will ensure a prosperous future for all residents of New England.

The full Providence Business Journal article can be seen here.