Letter: New businesses will ease tax burden

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To the editor,

It is no secret the main challenge facing Naugatuck today is our high tax rate. The tax burden on all of us is too high. And we all know the most lasting solution is to bring new businesses to town to grow our grand list. The grand list is the total taxable property in town. If we have more people (businesses) in town paying taxes, the less all of us will need to pay. That’s why my first priority is bringing businesses to town.

I want to share with you my philosophy on how we’ll be most successful at attracting new business. No mayor can get elected and start choosing what businesses he or she wants to put where. We have to market and promote our open lots and vacant storefronts to potential developers and business owners looking to open their businesses in town. I’ll make it a priority of mine to work in tandem with the Naugatuck Economic Development Corporation to make sure we’re talking to developers to sell them on completing their next project in Naugatuck. We need to actively market the tax incentive programs the borough has available to attract these new businesses to build in Naugatuck.

While it is of utmost importance to attract new businesses to town, I believe it is just as important to create a better business environment in Naugatuck. I will do everything I can to reach out to our small business owners in town and build relationships with our business leaders. As I’ve gone around and talked to several business owners in town, one of their biggest complaints is they feel like they’re on a little island in town struggling to make their business successful. It is vital to build a better sense of community among our local businesses.

That is why I’ll create the Naugatuck Small Business Connection, to give our local business leaders a chance to network among themselves and the town leadership. We need to make sure the business owners we have in town feel connected and supported by the community as well as the town leadership. We need to be sure the small businesses we do have in town, want to stay and be successful right here in Naugatuck.

Also, we’ll host small business fairs on the Green to give our businesses a chance to showcase themselves, and show our residents the variety of businesses we have in town. I’ll be sure to spend a portion of my time going around and visiting with different business around town. Our businesses need to know that we are all in this together.

Together, we’ll work to foster a better business climate. We’ll begin to make Naugatuck a more attractive place to own and operate a business. As we begin to make Naugatuck a more business-friendly community, new businesses will want to call Naugatuck home. The change we need to see happen in our business community will take some time. There’s no quick fix solution. But if you elect me as your mayor, I’ll work my hardest to begin this change. We’ll improve the business climate and take our first steps towards Getting Naugatuck Back in Business.

Seth Bronko

Naugatuck

The writer in the Republican Town Committee’s endorsed candidate for mayor of Naugatuck.

1 COMMENT

  1. I would hope the Citizen’s News is preparing to be printing political campaign pieces in this space from all candidates in Naugatuck as this letter certainly goes well beyond an editorial opinion “letter to the editor”. The mistake made is allowing the writer to state “elect me as your mayor”, which changes this from his opinion to a campaign piece.