Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin this week pledged to significantly cut the city’s property tax rate, a move that could help lessen the cost of doing business in the notoriously expensive capital.
“When I submit my budget next month, it will include a mill rate reduction,” Bronin said during his state of the city address on Monday. “It won’t be as big a reduction as I wish that it could be. But it will help at least a little. It’ll get our mill rate down below 70 for the first time in more than 15 years. And it will be the largest reduction in our property tax rate in more than 30 years.”
The mayor did not say how much the tax cut could be, or what number below 70 mills he is aiming for.
The announcement underscores the extent to which Hartford’s once chaotic financial situation has been reordered. Hartford’s current mill rate is 74.29, by far the highest in the state.
When Bronin took office in 2016, the city, facing years of population decline, was saddled with debt and considering declaring bankruptcy. The state eventually stepped in with a controversial financial bailout.
Since then, however, Hartford has built up its reserves and had its credit rating raised.
The city is also seeing new infusions of federal aid through the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, passed in early 2021, though Bronin did not say specifically that the federal money was a factor in his planned tax cut.
Hartford’s high commercial tax rate has driven out some longtime local businesses over the years and stifled some opportunities for future development. Bronin has spoken often about the chilling effect the mill rate exerts, calling it an “unsustainable and unfair burden” in a 2019 interview with the HBJ.
The city also recently completed a revaluation that saw the value of commercial office buildings decline, for the most part, while residential property values jumped around 30% to 46%, portending a shift in the city’s tax burden onto homeowners.
A decline in the mill rate could ease that burden.
