Business View Magazine | June 2019

346 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE JUNE 2019 school system and good facilities.” The tax base has been moving from an 85 percent, largely residential tax base, to 67 percent residential. Commercial businesses and industrial sectors are growing. Two 200,000 square foot distribution centers were built in 2015 for Hyundai Mobis and Vistar of New England Foods. Eighty- eight manufacturing companies in South Windsor have gotten breaks from the state on their M&E (machinery and equipment) taxes. “We’ve tried to be very diverse; not to throw all our eggs in one basket,” notes Galligan. “Just recently, Coca- Cola was looking to leave Connecticut and South Windsor was able to convince them to stay and build a 300,000-sq.-ft. distribution sales center in town. Now we’re looking at a Fortune 100 company to come in to build a distribution center in our area, and there’s probably a third one after that.” Though Gerber Scientific has curtailed some of its operations over the years, some of the buildings they had were taken over by other companies, including Ticket Network, that have been very positive in providing jobs for the town’s workforce. “We have a tax incentive program we call a ‘tax fixing agreement’ for new companies who can come in,” says Galligan. “Usually they come to us, first, and we give them the incentives, then they go to the state for whatever they can get, after that. So, we’ve been a very, very business-friendly town, here. But if anybody wants to expand their company, we do try and knock on the doors, locally, to find out whether existing businesses are looking to relocate, and to see if there’s anything we can do to help them expand their business or offer incentives to them to do those expansions here. Our boards and commissions are business- friendly and very focused as a group, and make it very easy to bring in development and get these projects through at a reasonable pace.” South Windsor has a capital project every year and continues to make sure its sewers are kept up to date, having just updated the sewer plant eight years ago for about $36 million. Significant sidewalk work from Evergreen Walk in the Proud to be a community partner in South Windsor