OPINION
Taxes, Taxes, and More Taxes.
How Are They Affecting Connecticut’s Small Business Owners? BY: ADRIELYS GOMEZ
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onnecticut has suffered some of the slowest employment and personal income growth in the U.S. following the 2008 financial crisis, despite the fact that the national economy has been booming. The state currently has some of the highest state and local taxes. The COVID-19 pandemic did not help matters either. The pandemic has had a “large negative impact” on 34 percent of small business owners in Connecticut, which is nearly 4 percent more than the national average. Small business owners already take years to break even, but during the pandemic, Governor Ned Lamont issued stay-at-home orders that forced many mom-andpop shops to close in hopes of “flattening the curve.” Although Connecticut’s reaction to COVID-19 has made it a leader among the states, major uncertainty lingers as the state fights to handle the public health crisis. Connecticut’s economy took
a significant blow as a result of coronavirus shutdowns and restrictions, with the state losing a record 291,300 jobs in March and April of 2020 — more than 17 percent. Connecticut performed better than other states during the early economic downturn, and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis has estimated that the state’s GDP fell 4.6 percent in the first three months of the year. What does this mean for small businesses? Once doors were able to reopen, small business owners felt the sting of the pandemic’s toll the most, struggling to stay afloat and pay their employees. It is also important to note that small businesses make up nearly 99.4 percent of businesses in the state and employ at least 48.4 percent of the workforce at any given time.1 These are the same businesses that will be at the forefront of the state’s recovery from the pandemic as we start to move back to normalcy. CONTINUED >
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