Hartford Business Journal

24 Hartford Business Journal • May 11, 2015 www.HartfordBusiness.com OPINION & COMMENTARY EDITORIAL Safety concerns shouldn't deter downtown living P ublic perception can be a hard thing to change, especially when mindsets have been molded over long periods. The perception, for example, of Hartford as a violent city is often hard to shake, but it shouldn't serve as a deterrent for people considering living downtown. As hundreds of new center-city apartment units come online this spring, several landlords have said a common question they receive is whether the area is safe. The answer, for the most part, is yes. As HBJ News Editor Gregory Seay reports in this week's issue, crime data indicates downtown is, relative to other city neighbor- hoods, the safest place in Hartford. Violent crimes in particular, such as murder or rape, are a rare breed in the central business district. Is downtown perfect? Obviously not. According to police data tallied through the first 16 weeks of this year (through April 25) there were 235 reported acts of car break- ins and shoplifting committed downtown — the area's most prevalent crime. Forty-nine vehicles were reported stolen in the center city during that time. Larcenies and thefts, however, have fallen over the last four years, police data shows. And if you ask most people who already spend time downtown, they'll tell you the busi- ness district is a pleasant to place live, work and play. Certainly more needs to be done to curb violence in Hartford and all major cities across the United States. Urban crime is not unique to our Capital City. And just because downtown is safer that doesn't mean businesses and residents should sit back and count their blessings; we all must remain vigilant and promote safe and healthy living conditions, not just in the center city but in all Hartford neighborhoods. Crime that exists in one part of the city can easily leak into downtown or other areas. Bottom line: Those thinking about downtown living shouldn't let misperceptions of crime and violence be a deterrent. n CT must work with for-profit hospitals Connecticut's healthcare industry got some good news last week after Los Angeles hos- pital operator Prospect Medical Holdings announced plans to acquire Waterbury Hospital. The proposed deal, which still faces many hurdles before it becomes a reality, is significant because it indicates that for-profit hospital systems have not completely slammed the door on Connecticut. That's a good thing, but also surprising following last year's Tenet Healthcare debacle, in which the Texas company abruptly pulled out of its deals to acquire five Connecticut hospitals after state regulators imposed onerous conditions on the transactions, including regulating staffing levels and employee pay. Connecticut needs the capital for-profit hospital systems have to offer and the state must find a way to work with Prospect Medical Holdings. If the company, which owns 13 hospitals in three states, including two in Providence, R.I., has a solid business plan that maintains the highest possible level of patient care it should be given the chance to operate in Connecticut. It's unclear, however, if state lawmakers and regulators are willing to play ball. There is still much uncertainty over how much power the Office of Health Care Access, which regulates hospital deals, will wield over the transaction. OHCA showed last year that's its oversight can be overbearing after it imposed dozens of restrictions on Tenet's deals. State lawmakers must more clearly define how they want to regulate healthcare- industry consolidation and the role for-profit hospitals can play. The legislature is cur- rently weighing several bills related to hospital mergers and we urge them to act before the legislative session ends early next month. The industry can't afford the continued regulatory uncertainty. n OTHER VOICES Property tax relief is just a euphemism for raises By Chris Powell D emocrats on the General Assembly's Finance, Revenue, and Bonding Com- mittee think they have the solution to state government's budget difficulties — just raise taxes another billion dollars per year, about 5 percent of the budget. This, the Demo- crats figured, will not only allow everything in state government to trundle on just as before, eliminating any pressure to set better priorities, but also provide for ded- icating a portion of sales tax revenue for grants to municipali- ties in the name of "property tax relief." The committee didn't hold a public hearing on its tax increases — public hear- ings are for legislation designating an official state appetizer and such — as a hearing might have prompted someone to note that "property tax relief" in Connecticut is like the furniture store that has been running a going-out- of-business sale for 40 years. That is, for decades now state government has been appropriating ever- more money in the name of "property tax relief" and yet proper- ty taxes have gone up steadily anyway. This is largely because of the state's system of binding arbitration for gov- ernment employee union contracts, which holds that if a municipality has any money at all, it can afford to pay more to its employees and indeed must pay more, even if it has been trying to save money for another undertaking or would like to reduce taxes. That is, the more money state government gives to municipalities, the more they must spend on their employees. There is never any property tax relief. Like "aid to local educa- tion," "property tax relief" is just a euphemism for coddling the government employee unions, which control the state's dominant political party, the Democratic Party. This is a system not of municipal finance but of public financing of political campaigns — one party's campaigns. Governor Malloy, whose own budget proposal would raise taxes but not as much as his party's legislators would like, would finance raises for state and municipal employees largely by cutting spending on the most innocent needy. The governor com- plains that the finance committee would tax too much. He also rejects the budget proposal of the legislature's minority Republicans to restore funding for the needy by extracting concessions from the state employee unions. Of course the unions won't volunteer conces- sions; concessions could be extracted only by a determined governor. Malloy is determined but only to keep the unions happy. Still, circumstances may let the governor pose as the moderate in the budget contro- versy, "triangulating" in Bill Clinton style between the rabid spenders of his party and the Republicans for whom saying "take it from the unions" is far easier than doing so. Ironi- cally the governor, who is already relying on the Republican minority to sustain his veto of a Democratic bill to prevent the state uni- versity board from closing a branch campus without legislative approval, soon could be relying on the Republicans as well to sustain his veto of a Democratic bill raising taxes. The most likely outcome seems to be a tax increase larger than the governor proposed, smaller than the Democratic legislators want, but enough to keep the raises flowing to the government class while telling the needi- est that it's starting to get warm outside so they can manage with- out help a while longer. Also last week U.S. Sen. Chris Mur- phy got enthusiastic about the "Promise Zone" status that, at his instigation, has been awarded by the federal government to an especially impoverished neighborhood in Hartford, which now is to get priority consideration for federal grants. This also invokes the everlasting going- out-of-business sale of the proverbial furni- ture store, insofar as the social disintegration of Hartford, once the most prosperous city in the country, correlates almost exactly with the era of federal grants. Hartford actually has been a "promise zone" for decades — as in "promises, promises." n Chris Powell is managing editor of the Journal Inquirer in Manchester. HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM POLL Do you consider downtown Hartford a safe place to live, work and play? ● Yes ● No To vote, go online to HartfordBusiness.com. Last week's poll results: Should lawmakers push state labor unions for wage and benefits concessions? 77.5% Yes 22.5% No Chris Powell ▶ ▶ Property tax relief in Connecticut is like the furniture store that has been running a going-out-of-business sale for 40 years. Send Us Your Letters The Hartford Business Journal welcomes letters to the editor and guest commentaries for our opinion pages. Electronic submissions are preferred and welcome at: editor@HartfordBusiness.com. Or you may fax submissions to Editor, Hartford Business Journal, at (860) 570-2493.

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