State Lets Another Company Get Away, Says Sen. Boucher

WILTON, CT - Blue Buffalo Pet Products, a Wilton-based natural pet food manufacturer, announced this week that it has acquired land in Richmond, IN, and will move its manufacturing facility from Wilton to the Hoosier State once it completes construction of the new complex.

"This is a very big day for Blue Buffalo," said Blue Buffalo Chairman and founder Bill Bishop in a statement. "This new, state of the art addition to our manufacturing network will complement our facility in Missouri. We expect to further increase our internal production capacity and now will have two of the most modern manufacturing facilities in the pet food industry. Additionally, we plan to open a state of the art R&D facility on our premises. We are also very proud of our plan to create over 160 full time jobs and look forward to being an upstanding partner in the Richmond community."

The company is investing $100 million into the project and construction is slated to begin later this year. But the planned move is not sitting well with state Sen. Toni Boucher (R-26th), in part because Indiana is only offering $1.6 million in potential tax benefits which Connecticut could have easily matched.

However, she says the company is looking at a more advantageous tax landscape overall in Indiana compared to Connecticut.

“The package Indiana is offering is modest compared to the packages Connecticut has handed out in its system of choosing winners and losers," said Boucher, whose district covers Westport and Wilton, in a statement. "While Connecticut’s First Five program and special handouts have averaged a cost to the state of approximately $90,000 per job in loans and grants, Indiana’s package only has a potential for approximately $10,000 per job in performance based tax credits – meaning the jobs have to be created first. What’s perhaps more attractive here is the potential to grow in an environment with less tax burdens and more reliability."

Connecticut is about to lose General Electric, which is moving from Fairfield to Boston, in part because of Connecticut's tax landscape. And to keep Bridgewater Associates in Westport (and expand in Norwalk and Wilton), the state has agreed to give the world's largest hedge fund a $22 million incentive package.

“Once again our state’s fiscal policies have resulted in another company not expanding in Connecticut," continued Boucher, speaking about Blue Buffalo. "The state has become numb to these types of announcements. Years of turning a blind eye to the problems and proposing the same anti-job policies have pushed people to look elsewhere and chased jobs out of our state. And as a result the middle and working class are the ones who suffer.

“Maybe advertising really does work. It was almost a year ago that Indiana ran a full page ad in the Wall Street Journal urging Connecticut companies to move to the Hoosier state. The message was simple: ‘friends don’t let friends pay high taxes.’"

Click here to read Sen. Boucher's full statement about the Blue Buffalo Pet Products move, and click here to view the company's full press release.