About 200 small business owners have joined together to fight tax bills that unfairly shift Hartford’s tax burden on them. The disparity of the tax bills is significant. Some businesses will see their tax bills climb 125 percent higher compared with last year’s bills, while some homeowners will see their bills drop 32 percent.
With two weeks left in the current legislative session, the businesses are taking matters into their own hands.
A group of South End business owners spearheaded the formation of the Hartford Small Business Alliance, launched a legal fund and hired local attorney Michael O’Connell, a partner with O’Connell, Flaherty & Attmore.
Last week, the group successfully persuaded Hartford City Council to approve a resolution requesting that the Connecticut General Assembly delay the city’s 1999 revaluation for another year.
They also met with the Connecticut General Assembly’s Hartford delegation to explain the urgency of their situation. Many say they will be forced to close their doors if the revaluation goes into effect.
Hartford City Mayor Eddie Perez joined the group when they met with lawmakers last week, repeating his desire to rectify the negative impact of the revaluation.
With less than two weeks left to the current legislative session, whether the state lawmakers adopt another tax relief bill is tentative.
Â
Unanimity Sought
House Speaker James A. Amann (D-Milford) has talked with members of the Hartford delegation about the revaluation concerns, said his spokesman Larry Perosino. “He is looking to them for some guidance or consensus on what is the best route to take for the City of Hartford,” Perosino said. “There are so many other issues, and it is coming down to crunch time, which does make it a tough sell to the entire legislature, particularly when we took action last year as the legislative session closed to help the city with its revaluation.”
Attorney Gregory W. Piecuch of O’Connell, Flaherty & Attmore said the group is hopeful a legislative remedy will circumvent its need to file a class action lawsuit against the city over the matter.
“The first step is to buy time,” he said. “Hopefully, we can fix it without going that route.”
Piecuch said that the gross disparity between different types of property “doesn’t sit straight. We need time to investigate what happened.”
Franklin Avenue business owner, Paul Mozzicato, who runs Mozzicato de Pasquale Bakery along with his family, maintains that about 800 small commercial businesses are facing significant tax hikes unless state officials remedy the impact of the city’s 1999 revaluation.
The revaluation found that most Hartford residences increased in market value by 60 percent, with homes in the West End spiking upwards by 80 percent. The smallest change was 45 percent for multi-family homes in Frog Hollow and downtown.
As a result, homeowners were facing significant tax increases last year, so lawmakers adopted a tax relief bill that capped the amount of tax the city could collect on apartments and homes to 3.5 percent. The bill also permitted the city to reduce its assessment on those properties.
