Mayoral candidate supports taxing city’s commuter workers

I.Charles Mathews, a leading challenger to Hartford Mayor Eddie Perez, said as mayor he’d look into ways to tax the thousands of Hartford workers who commute in from the suburbs. Moderators at a mayoral candidates forum Tuesday night brought up Mathews’ 1989 attempt to tax the income of such workers when Mathews was the city’s deputy mayor. “I think it’s safe to say I got whupped [at the time],” he said. “I still think it’s a good idea,” although Matthews acknowledged that the specific tax idea was unlikely. Perez rebutted by saying such a move would prompt businesses to leave Hartford, and said he’d create cash flow for the city by pressing the state investigation to reform its property tax system. Much of the rest of the forum focused on the criminal corruption charges against Perez.