Connecticut Business Survey Shows Growth and Concerns

The report released by the Connecticut Business and Industry Association revealed that many Connecticut businesses are thriving but have concerns about what the future may hold.

Forty-three percent of more than 500 businesses surveyed said economic conditions are the biggest issue facing companies in the state. Nearly half the businesses surveyed said they're concerned about the tax increases that came out of the latest legislative session.

Peter Gioia, an economist with the CBIA, said the issue has become prominent in recent years.

Gioia said businesses are asking, "'Every time the legislature goes in are they going to raise my taxes? I’ve got R&D type tax credits. Are these going to go away?'"

On the positive side, 63 percent of businesses in Connecticut reported that they were profitable in the last year. That's a big increase, according to Andrew Lattimer with BlumShapiro, who helped to compile the results for CBIA.

"It's a sign that moods have changed when it comes to spending after the recession but that many companies have adjusted to become more profitable as they reduced expenses," Lattimer said.

One business, F3 Technology Partners, has seen a boom over the past year, with a 30-percent increase in profits. The company manages data storage and cloud operations for clients throughout Connecticut.

The company's CEO, Tom Colleary, said even though he's seen huge growth, he also gets a feeling from clients that a slowdown may be coming.

"Our customers are a little tentative on where they want to make capital expenditures. They’re not sure where state policies are going, so until that’s really determined and they know and they can predict where their revenues are going to come from, and until that happens, we can’t really follow their lead too much," he said.

Colleary said he wants to see the state do more to allow small businesses like his, which has  just 24 employees, like come up with incentives.

"I think that they can look at the tax rate on small businesses to start, and the employee tax credits that will allow me to bring more employees into the business," he said.

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