Hartford Business Journal

32 HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | OCTOBER 19, 2026 Local Experts. Partnerships that Elevate. Business Banking I Commercial Lending Visit ascend.bank/business Retirement Plans I Succession Planning Visit greyledge.com Grey Ledge Advisors is a wholly owned subsidiary of Ascend Bank. Grey Ledge Advisors is a registered investment advisor and makes investment recommendations that involve products that are not bank deposits, are not guaranteed by the bank, not FDIC insured, and involve investment risks, including the possible loss of principal. Opinion & Commentary OTHER VOICES 169-town system undermines CT's economic competitiveness By Paul Lavoie C onnecticut has 3.6 million residents and 169 municipali- ties. We value our towns, their identities, traditions and local control. But our economy does not recognize municipal boundaries nearly as much as our government does, and nowhere is that disconnect clearer than with property taxation. Consider a manu- facturer evaluating Connecticut for a $10 million facility. At a 70% assessment, the property would be valued at $7 million for tax purposes. Using current municipal mill rates, the annual real estate tax bill for that facility would range from roughly $132,000 in Shelton to nearly $483,000 in Hartford. Nothing about the company, building, workforce or products changed in determining the property tax. Only the ZIP code did. That difference is approximately $351,000 a year, or $3.5 million over 10 years if today's rates remain constant. Same factory. Same state. Very different economics. That is the "169 problem." Businesses do not care which level of government sends the bill. A CEO or CFO sees one cost structure: taxes, energy, housing, transportation, workforce, healthcare, permitting and infrastruc- ture. Connecticut's competitiveness must therefore be measured by the total cost of doing business, including the cost created by fragmentation. Our economy is regional, but our tax structure is local. A factory may employ people from 25 communities, buy from suppliers across Connecticut and support restaurants, housing and commerce throughout the region. Yet, most of its property-tax benefit goes to the municipality where the building sits. That encourages towns to focus on growing their own grand lists rather than growing Connecticut's economy. Fragmentation also creates dupli- cation. Every municipality performs many of the same functions, including purchasing, technology, assessment, finance, human resources, planning and administration. Some services should remain local. But must every function operate inde- pendently 169 times? Connecticut should set a practical target. Identify services that can be shared regionally without sacri- ficing local identity and pursue a 5% reduction in selected municipal operating costs through consolidated purchasing, shared technology, cooper- ative public works, joint administration and regional economic development. Return the savings to taxpayers through lower property-tax burdens. Measure the results. If 5% is not achievable, prove it. If more is possible, pursue it. This is not about eliminating towns. Shelton should remain Shelton, New Haven should remain New Haven, and Hartford should remain Hartford. We can preserve local identity while building regional systems that operate more efficiently. Connecticut towns are not truly competing with one another. Connecticut is competing with other states and countries. We do not win when a company moves from one Connecticut municipality to another. We win when that company chooses Connecticut. Our economy, workforce, supply chains, housing markets and trans- portation networks are regional. Much of the government supporting them remains local. That mismatch is costing us and is making Connecticut less affordable than other states. Connecticut does not need 169 economic strategies. It needs one statewide growth strategy supported by strong regions and strong communities. The most powerful competitiveness initiative may not be another incentive. It may be redesigning the system that makes Connecticut expensive in the first place. Paul Lavoie is vice president of corporate partnerships and innovation and executive director of The Elevation Center at the University of New Haven. He previously served as Connecticut's chief manufacturing officer. Paul Lavoie

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