Indiana Strikes Back: State Takes Swipe at CT

By Vincent Salzo, Patch Editor

The state of Indiana has taken a swipe at Connecticut and Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, possibly in retaliation for Malloy’s strong criticism of that state’s controversial Religious Freedom Restoration Act a few months ago.

Indiana took out a full-page ad in Wednesday’s Wall Street Journal, lending its support to Fairfield-based General Electric, along with fellow Connecticut companies Aetna and Travelers that criticized the state’s new business tax increases in the recently adopted budget.

The ad states that Indiana offers its support to those companies in the wake of the looming tax increases “because friends don’t let friends pay higher taxes.”

In addition, Indiana Gov. Michael R. Pence sent a letter to the heads of GE, Aetna, and Travelers, inviting them to come to Indiana.

In the letter, Pence states, “In Indiana, we’ve labored over the last decade to build a state that works for business,” and “By nearly any measure, Indiana is one of the top places in the world to do business.”

GE CEO Jeff Immelt recently sent an email to the company’s Connecticut employees, notifying them that he has “assembled an exploratory team to look into the company’s options to relocate corporate HQ to another state with a more pro-business environment.”