Litchfield County businesses’ worries about the fallout from the state’s budget deficit are weighing down plans to expand their companies, a fresh survey shows.
Litchfield businesses share many of the same top business challenges as their counterparts throughout the state, according to a joint survey from the Connecticut Business & industry Assocation and the Northwest Connecticut Chamber of Commerce.
These include diminishing profitability/customer base, business taxes, a weak state economy, state mandates and regulations, and health care costs, the surveyors said.
“My real concern,” says Mark E. Macomber, president and CEO of Litchfield Bancorp., “is oriented toward Hartford and Washington, where irresponsible, unsustainable spending is exacerbated by a never-ending supply of costly new regulations. Together, these two factors create huge barriers to growth for small businesses.”
While the cost of doing business in a high-cost state remains a top business concern, perceptions regarding which variables drive up business expenses have changed.
Today health care is the number one concern, with 71 percent calling it a significant burden.
