What’s the Insurance Capital Without Aetna? Hartford May Find Out
HARTFORD — Very little is going right for this once proud New England capital.
Hartford’s
finances are such a shambles that it is on the verge of bankruptcy. In a
city already plagued by violence, murders are on the rise this year.
Even the minor league baseball stadium, which opened to much fanfare two
months ago, is the subject of an F.B.I. investigation over its hefty price tag.
Now comes the latest and perhaps most painful blow: Aetna,
the insurance giant, announced last month that it was planning to move
its headquarters out of the city it has called home since it was founded
more than 150 years ago.
State
and city leaders have spent months pleading with the company to stay.
Aetna was negotiating with several states for a location of its new
headquarters and hoped to have a decision by early summer.
Aetna
helped elevate Hartford to international recognition as the world’s
insurance capital. Word that it may be packing boxes shows how far the
city’s fortunes have fallen.
“In
some ways, of all the companies that could move their headquarters out
of the state, symbolically this may be the most painful,” said Walter
Woodward, Connecticut’s historian and an associate professor at the
University of Connecticut. “This is not just a corporate loss. It’s a
cultural loss.”
Hartford
was once so intertwined with insurance that even Mark Twain, its most
famous resident, not only celebrated the city’s lifeblood, but also was a
director of the Hartford Accident Insurance Company. In a speech to the
a group of insurers in Hartford, which included executives from 10
companies, Twain spoke of Hartford as “a city whose fame as an insurance
center has extended to all lands.”
Moody’s
downgraded Hartford’s credit rating to junk status last fall, and said
it was considering another reduction. A significant factor will be how
much additional aid the state will give to Hartford, but state lawmakers
have struggled to pass their own budget amid soaring pension payments
and declining tax revenue.
Without
help from the state, Hartford will have “a hard time paying what they
need to pay,” said Leonard Jones, head of local government ratings for
Moody’s. “Their wiggle room is bare.”
Aetna’s
announcement underscored how Hartford’s deep-seated problems contribute
to another: The midsize city finds itself struggling to maintain appeal
for young professionals lured by the pull of larger and more dynamic
cities.
“Hartford
is not ever going to be New York or Boston,” Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, a
Democrat, said in a statement in response to the company’s potential
move.
Mr.
Malloy, who has written two letters to Aetna lobbying it not to leave
Hartford, said he had repeatedly made clear how much the company meant
to the state and was willing to match any incentives offered by another
state.
“It
is my own opinion that this has more to do with their desire to have
executive leadership operate in a larger, more vibrant urban center than
Connecticut can currently offer,” the governor has said.
The Hartford Courant, in a sharply worded editorial
after Aetna’s announcement, called on elected officials to provide a
plan to end the state’s financial troubles and ensure a more thriving
future.
“The
state’s persistent financial woes and refusal to recalibrate to
21st-century realities have been pushing out people and businesses for
years,” the editorial said. “If anyone is still dreaming that all of the
state’s problems will be solved with a drive-by casino, legalized
marijuana and a few highway toll cameras, they need to wake up.”
Not everyone has given up hope.
Christopher
J. Swift, the chief executive of The Hartford, an insurance company
whose history dates back over 200 years, pointed to some initiatives
that he believed could begin to revitalize the city. They included the
construction of new apartments and a proposed new campus for the state
university downtown.
“I
don’t know if ‘Insurance Capital of the World’ is really necessary or
needed for us to carry on our mission,” he said. “I’m bullish on people
being attracted to a smaller version of New York or Boston if they want
an urban life.”
Bill
Breetz, 76, a retired lawyer, spoke with a reporter at the stately
stucco house in the city’s West End where his family has lived for
nearly 50 years.
“You can’t walk down the street or go to a party without meeting someone who works in the insurance industry,” he said.
Still, he said his wife had never fully taken to the city, even as they raised three children here.
“So
it would be easy to convince her that it’s time to get out,” he said.
“But we’ve got a wonderful neighborhood. There are all kinds of folks
we’ve known forever.”
Just another example of mandates, employees cost and an unwillingness to modernize setting another area of the country in distress.
ReplyDeleteThis is going to continue as unfunded pension plans, over-promised under-delivered services and an over privileged school system are killing this country.