Bridgeport Regional Business Council

The vision of the Bridgeport Regional Business Council in the years ahead is to be the region's premier business organization.

"The economic growth of the City is key to the growth and stability of the Region..."

Vision

The vision of the Bridgeport Regional Business Council in the years ahead is to be the region's premier business organization, one that will work with its membership to create an environment where

• Small business is attracted and thrives.
• Communities and organizations are collaborative.
• Identified economic development projects that are part of an overall economic development vision are successful.

Mission

The mission of the Bridgeport Regional Business Council is to increase the economic opportunities for the people of the Bridgeport Region by acting to create an environment for business expansion, retention, and recruitment that will result in jobs and tax base growth.

FIRST, IF OUR MISSION IS JOBS AND TAX BASE GROWTH, WE MUST CONCLUDE THE FOLLOWING:

• The economic growth of the City is key to the growth and stability of the region.
• The ratio between residential and commercial and industrial tax burden in the City must be shifted, i.e., the proportion of 65 percent of the tax burden coming from residential taxpayers and 35 percent from non-residential must be turned around.
• In order to prevent a mass exodus of middle class taxpayers as property taxes increase, significant growth in the grand list must occur.
• Significant growth in the grand list comes from significant capital investment, i.e., large projects.
• As an example, the People's Bank headquarters building, a large development project, would have to be built over 75 times in the City to close what was in 1990 a five-year projected budget gap of over $200,000,000.
• In order for significant development projects to occur, the following things needed to happen (his list is not meant to be all inclusive, i.e., does not include the need for public safety improvement and public education improvement):
   
  • The City needed a vision and a plan.
  • Public investment in infrastructure improvement and property remediation needed to occur.
  • Public investment needed to leverage private investment.
• These things now have happened in Bridgeport and the region will be better as a result

The Roles

The roles of the Bridgeport Regional Business Council are:

• To be a community booster.
• To be an advocate of the business community in the halls of government.
• To be an agency that fosters networking opportunities and professional relationships.
• To be a leader in efforts to raise the level of regional cooperation.
• To be a leader, initiator, and facilitator in local and regional economic development efforts.

NOW, HERE IS A KEY FEATURE OF OUR PREMISE:

The Business Council has seen its role over the last eight years as being the force behind creating the vision and the plan, creating consensus around the vision and the plan, encouraging and creating opportunities for and lobbying for public investment, and private investment. We have, in other words, concentrated on the bigger economic development picture.

BUT, AN IMPORTANT PIECE OF OUR PREMISE HAS BEEN:

We have done this under the assumption that others were, and other organizations were, addressing and working on the other things that need to be done to make for better conditions in which economic development can occur. We have not, in this regard, pretended to be all things to all people. This does not mean that we are not interested in these other things or that we could not somehow play a role but our concentration has been on the big picture and we firmly believe we have had an impact.