Waterbury's Dire State Of Affairs And Why It May Not Last

Every couple of years Waterbury will get a negative rating of best/worst towns in the country from a business or travel publication. This year Forbes magazine online edition rated Waterbury as a bad town to do business in calling it a dump and a corrupt one at that. What instigated all this was the appointment of former ex-con governor John Rowland to run economic development in an organization that does nothing of a kind. We extend compliments to Anita Bologna for sticking up for the city chastising Forbes and its columnist for its characterization in the Waterbury Observer also various commentaries on the Forbes web site, some of which are not native to Waterbury but happen to like our town.

Any politician that looks to the Waterbury Development Corp. to "develop" communities or to market the city ought to just come out and say that they are negligent, or incompetent as an elected official to do anything about the economic well being of Waterbury. It is the job of elected officials to improve the conditions the city finds itself. That they would look to John Rowland, or anyone for that matter, in an outside organization is washing their hands of the task. That Rowland is an ex-con detracts from the bigger picture and that is why is it that city hall can't do the economic development themselves? What brings the city in it's predicament, real or imagined, is the cost of government. High taxes (and they are) penalizes business and property owners.

We won't go over again just what it is that drives successful economies, previous posts have done that. Politicians like to think that "enterprise zones" and "tax abatement's" seem to work, and we agree, they do. We just can't understand why they have to be implemented in zones or for new business. If they see that these planes work then why do they have to be under special circumstances, why not extend the zone to everywhere and abatement's (we like to call this lower taxes, or outright elimination of some taxes) for everyone? If your outside the zone then your not in a very enterprising place are you, if you've been doing business for 35 years then your paying a business unfriendly tax. We're not saying it, the politicians are ADMITTING it. Just look at their solutions when it comes to business they want to attract or areas they want to enhance. As for the rest of us who've been here they scratch their heads and outsource the problem as if the problem is all of a sudden beyond their ability.

Waterbury is a beautiful city with alot going for it. It's greatest resource is not the highways, not it's medical services, manufacturing base, sports facilities, culture, shopping areas or it's housing prices. It's best resource is its people, enterprising, innovative and intelligent people. Waterbury may find its way higher on some list somewhere and we think it will improve because it has the talent to become the best town in the state. It isn't their yet, we want a hand in changing that.