New York. Ohio. Florida. And now Indiana.
Those are four states that have made it known this month their desires to lure away big Connecticut companies in the wake of the legislature’s approval of approximately $2 billion in tax increases.
Indiana took out a full-page ad in Wednesday’s Wall Street Journal appealing to General Electric, Aetna and Travelers — all of which have expressed varying degrees of displeasure over the state budget.
“We offer our support in the wake of Connecticut’s looming tax increase, because friends don’t let friends pay higher taxes,” the ad reads.
The ad lists Indiana’s state’s lead economic development agency at the bottom.
An Indiana state official told Inside Indiana Business that Gov. Mike Pence plans to reach out to GE executives soon.
The overtures to Connecticut companies come as Gov. Dannel P. Malloy plans to meet this week with Joe Brennan, CEO of the Connecticut Business and Industry Association.
Asked Wednesday about Indiana’s WSJ ad, Malloy Spokesman Devon Puglia rebutted the idea that Connecticut is a high-tax state and criticized Indiana’s government for its attempt to pass a law earlier this year that Malloy viewed as discriminatory against gays, causing him to issue a ban on state-funded travel to the Hoosier State.
“Let’s be very clear – Connecticut has one of the lowest – one of the lowest – effective corporate tax rates in America, hovering around North Carolina,” Puglia said. “While we’ve grown more than 75,000 jobs over the past several years, Indiana’s focus is on passing laws that discriminate against sexual orientation. While we have one of the most attractive corporate tax structures in America, Indiana passes some of the most discriminatory laws in the nation. That’s ultimately the contrast we’re talking about here.”
Puglia was referring to a study released last year by the Council on State Taxation, which determined Connecticut had the second-lowest business taxes as a percentage of gross state product, at 3.4 percent.
CBIA and other businesses are hoping the state legislature will reconsider some of the budget provisions that impact them, including caps on tax credits and loss carry forwards, a unitary tax, continuation of a 20 percent corporate tax surcharge, and a tax on web and data processing services.
