Hartford Business Journal

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Financial Institutions gain our independent perspective on assurance, tax and advisory services that render real solutions to your business needs. Put your trust in advisors pas- sionate about your success. Let our knowledge create your next masterpiece. from page 1 Alliance, says conversations have already begun between Bronin, the business com- munity and other private-sector pillars, such as hospitals and nonprofits, as to how they can partner with City Hall to improve, not just their lots, but the fortunes of all city residents and institutions. "The private sector is willing,'' Griebel said, "to come to the table knowing that someone is there willing to have an open conversation.'' Joseph F. Brennan, CEO for the Con- necticut Business & Industry Association, which is based in Hartford, says those of its members with stakes in the city, too, are eager to learn more about Bronin's plans to revitalize the Capital City. "The city has a lot to offer but has not been able to fully leverage its strengths and therefore lags many other regions in econom- ic growth,'' Brennan said via email. "A corol- lary of this is the city's property tax structure for both large and small businesses." Bronin, 36, broadly detailed last week more about his ideas and proposed initia- tives over a plate of carnitas at El Tepeyac Mexican Restaurant — one of his favorite local eateries — inside El Mercado on Park Street, in the Frog Hollow neighborhood. Among his first tasks, if elected, in his first 100 days in office is to overhaul leader- ship in city departments, handpicking his own management team, Bronin said. He also bared concepts for resolving the city's bifurcated property-tax system that bur- dens commercial property owners with the highest property tax rate in Connecticut. He also wants to focus on growing the city's grand list and ratcheting up Hartford's pur- suit of state and federal funds. Bronin also shed more light on his variation of a program inaugurated in the Great Depression for putting idle citizens to work. His version would put un- and under- employed city residents aged 16 to 24 to work, building or maintaining city parks and other public spaces, and performing other public-service chores. "We have in parts of Hartford, Great Depression-level unemployment,'' he said. "I think we should look back at some of the things that were done in the Great Depression to help combat that sense of hopelessness and lack of opportunity. And one of those things is Youth Service Corps." Recruiting a strong management team will be vital to his success, Bronin said. He wants a team that's "prepared to tackle tough challenges head on and that's ready to tell me bad news, not just good news." He said he intends to ask for the resig- nations of all the city's department heads. "Obviously I'll decide which of those letters to accept and which to reject. I am looking forward to sitting down with the department heads and having some detailed conversations with each of them." Asked whether the city's requirement that department heads be Hartford residents will hinder his efforts to assemble an effective team, he said, "I look forward to finding out." "I obviously would like to recruit talent from Hartford as much as possible. And I'd like any talent coming from outside of Hart- ford to make Hartford their home. There are a few positions that have remained unfilled for a long time. I'm interested in learning firsthand to what extent that requirement is an obstacle.'' Fiscal issues By the time the new mayor is seated, Hartford will be halfway into its 2016 fiscal year budget. Bronin says his attention will be focused on the fiscal 2017 budgeting process, which starts in earnest early next year. "We're going to be facing, I suspect, a chal- lenging budget once again,'' he said. "So the next step is going to be to make sure we are doing everything we can to balance our budget in the coming year in a way that's sustainable.'' Property tax reform On the city's property-tax system, which significantly hinders private investment by taxing commercial property owners at a higher rate (74.29 mills) than residential property owners, Bronin said it will take time to fix. "There is currently a plan in place that results in equalization over a long period of time," Bronin said. "Obviously, over the longer term we have to get Hartford into a position where we are decreasing the mill rate, and therefore decreasing the tax bur- den on commercial and residential proper- ties alike. But that's going to take some time and a lot of work." One sustainable way is to expand the city's grand list of taxable real and personal property, to gain more revenue, Bronin says. "No. 1, you need to try to promote an increase in the values of the properties that are here,'' he said, "by identifying any possible tenant who you can encourage to come into Hartford, strengthening the values of our exist- ing property by helping to generate demand." He also reprised his intention to seize development opportunities in the city's South Meadows, and any parcels potential- ly unlocked by recasting the I-84 viaduct. "We should be doing work to fill in the gaps in our city,'' he said, "where there are many blighted and abandoned prop- erties, city-owned properties, old factory buildings. You have to make an enormous amount of progress on that front to make a dent in the grand list." Bronin sees potential in promoting development through the city's enterprise zones. Generally, such zones provide fund- ing, tax breaks, reduced regulation, or other incentives to encourage investment in infrastructure improvements, job cre- ation, among other things. To maximize enterprise zones' poten- tial, he said, "I think it starts with outreach to employers and businesses all around the state and the country and seeing who'd entertain the possibility of coming to Hart- ford. And then you figure out what the right proposal needs to look like.'' "We should be taking fuller advantage of all the zones, the designations that we have,'' Bronin said. "Hartford has an enter- prise zone that we have not utilized as aggressively as some other cities have. We also are a 'hub zone,' which means compa- nies located in large parts of Hartford get a major leg up in federal contracting if they employ a certain percentage of their work- ers from within the city of Hartford." "We need to recruit companies by pro- moting that hub zone designation more actively as well," he said. "And finally, we need to take advantage of the more recent [North End] promise zone designation. What the promise zone allows you to do is compete more effectively for federal grants … But that only matters if we actu- ally go after those grants with a real sense of purpose.'' n Bronin's blueprints

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