Most of these businesses being audited, are estimated to have $50,000.00 or more in taxable assets. These assets are usually the ones listed on their property report documents and are located at the Town Tax Assessors office. Many small businesses are already questioning the irrational logic behind paying tax to the city on company chairs, desks, computers, plants, and art however, some in city hall are crying foul that not enough is being reported.Richetelli is expecting the sweeping "business tax" dragnet style audit to reap $200,000.00 in revenue to his budget. The Milford Mirror has also made a rather dismissive story out of this business hostile city policy. The Mirror cited that only big companies will be subject to the audit, when in reality the auditing company will get a one time 25% commission on all the cash it can legally extort from our local community.
This commission may certainly all but guarantee that the estimated 700 targeted businesses increase to a greater number. This figure may actually balloon further as the immutable laws of corporate greed give birth to the wanton avarice of most every common collection agency. But what concerns me is not so much the corruption of good men, the "carte blanche" given to Tax Management Associates, or the squabbling pirates who will be dividing the new found loot at city hall, it is, rather the aggregate encumbrance and interference of our local governments misguided policy in the business community.
The timing of this could not be more inappropriate. The state of Connecticut just reinvigorated its tax amnesty plan and is in the early phase of implementing tax enforcement against small businesses mis-reporting sales taxes. The Federal government is raising all kinds of taxes across the board, local commercial and residential property taxes have spiked and the minimum wage increase has been recently put into effect.
This has all happened in a period where the credit markets have been frozen, making it very difficult to obtain credit for business loans, unemployment rates have significantly increased, and electric rates doubled. Recently CT Representative Cafero (R) from Norwalk said that Connecticut was ranked dead last as being the worst state in America to operate a small business, and Milford may very well be on its way to being the worst town in CT with this unusual collection attempt.
This latest Richetelli policy, albeit legal and seemingly altruistic and honorable is, poorly timed, ill conceived and nothing more than a creative attempt to circumvent the reality that our city cannot continue to ignore the nationwide malaise of Carbon Taxes, Tax Hikes, Fee Hikes, Inflation, Foreclosures, and Increased Regulation imposed on everything.
The choices are not good for anyone involved, but for city officials to just "jump at easy money" under the guise of "tax collection enforcement policy" is neither an honest assessment of the cities "good intentions" or a direct attack limited to "big business" only. Large companies in our city like Schick have options, they can close down and move their manufacturing elsewhere, much in the same way Bic left town for Shelton costing the city jobs and taxable revenue.
This policy is a wrong headed policy that will add to the hostile business climate already underway. There is little doubt that business will adapt and cut back to balance their books at the expense of their employees who always end up paying the price through reduced medical benefits, pay limitations, and most tragically unemployment. The resulting business tax enforcement will certainly convince many small businesses on the verge to come to a faster and more decisive decision, that this new enforcement action may be the deciding factor to just Go out of business.... It does'nt take much in this hostile business climate.
Milford needs to be thinking in the "other way" or in other words do a "complete 180 degree turn" on this one if our local businesses are to thrive as this administrations claims in its public rhetoric.
