Hartford Business Journal

12 Hartford Business Journal • July 8, 2019 • www.HartfordBusiness.com SPECIAL REPORT: CITIES PROJECT By Matt Pilon & Gregory Seay mpilon@hartfordbusiness.com, gseay@hartfordbusines.com, F or years, John Tornatore chafed at the high personal and real estate property tax- es the city of Hartford levied on his South End flower shop. In the mid-2000s, Tornatore was fed up with the steep impacts of a revalu- ation and ready to move his enterprise with roots to the days when gunmaker Colt's dominated the city's economy. But then former Mayor Eddie Perez presented him an opportunity he felt could financially save the city — and his business. Perez sat Tornatore and more than a dozen other city residents and busi- ness people on a panel charged with identifying ways Hartford could save money while enhancing its revenue- raising opportunities. The list of ideas included: Enacting a two-year moratorium on any new properties gaining nonprofit tax-ex- empt status; privatizing city garbage collection; and lobbying the state to allow municipalities to levy property taxes on nonprofit-owned vehicles and office equipment. But rather than embrace their rec- ommendations, Tornatore said Perez disbanded the panel in early 2008. Tornatore said that added insult to injury, and not long after, tired of pay- ing approximately $2,100 a month in property taxes on his Franklin Avenue shop, he sold the building and moved his Gordon Bonetti Florist to 3,000 square feet of leased space on the Silas Deane Highway in Wethersfield. His monthly property-tax bill there: $398, including real and personal property tax and vehicles, based on that town's mill rate of $40.78 for ev- ery $1,000 of assessed property value. "There's not one thing that's going to fix it,'' Tornatore said, referring to Hart- ford's high property tax rate, which currently sits at 74.29 mills, and bifur- cated property-tax setup, which forces commercial property owners to pay a higher tax rate than homeowners. The year after disbanding Torna- tore's group, Perez — who had some tax-reform ideas of his own, includ- ing an income-based property tax — convened another group of business leaders whose list of recommendations to tighten city spending also went nowhere. Perez is running for mayor again after leaving office in 2010 amid a cor- ruption scandal. In an interview, Perez said such citizen groups were well- meaning, but their recommendations were often too broad and tough to sell locally, let alone to state lawmakers. "It was always 'these are 10 things you can try,' " Perez said. "There was never a time I can remember there was total agreement on one agenda we could have gotten the administra- tion behind." Those are just two examples of efforts in Hartford over the years to put smart people in a room to come up with ideas to bolster city finances, grow the grand list and make the tax system fairer. The lack of meaningful results speaks to the complexity of the morass in Hartford, which has been created and compounded over the decades by the policy and funding decisions of state and city government alike, as well as by broader economic factors over which neither has much control. The situation reached a breaking point in recent years, when the city neared bankruptcy, saved only by the state's decision to pay off more than $750 mil- lion in Hartford's long-term debt and interest over the coming decades. Despite that financial lifeline, Hartford still owns by far the highest property tax rate in the state, which has stifled economic growth and isn't likely to be lowered anytime soon. The city's $4 bil- lion grand list is 30 percent below what it was at the turn of the 21st century and 38 percent below its 1990 peak of $6.5 billion. Meantime, 59 percent of the as- sessed real estate in the city is tax exempt because it's owned by govern- ments or nonprofits, and the city is home to one of the poorest popula- tions in the country. Many ideas have been pitched to re- verse Hartford's fortunes, but they've inevitably offended key constituencies, Solution Oriented Myriad ideas exist to solve Hartford's high property taxes and unequal tax system Owner John Tornatore's Gordon Bonetti Florist is one casualty of Hartford's unique property tax system, which leans more heavily on businesses than homeowners. Tornatore pulled up stakes for neighboring Wethersfield, where he says he's enjoying much lower tax bills. HBJ PHOTO | GREGORY SEAY

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