Aetna Joins Corporate Effort to Save Hartford Financial and Psychological Slump
Connecticut may be the wealthiest state in the nation, but you wouldn't know that by visiting its capital, Hartford. The city is in the middle of a financial and psychological slump. Hartford has some of the starkest inequality of any major metro area in the U.S., with a third of residents living in poverty not far from ultra-wealthy communities. More immediately, Hartford's fiscal problems have lately reached a crisis level, as more than half of the city's property is non-taxable, and the tax base is much smaller than many suburbs. The result is a serious structural problem.
Of course, Hartford is also famously the home of top U.S. insurance companies, which are based in towers downtown and rake in vast profits. These corporations have often been criticized for not doing enough to help local residents, and so it was big news when three major insurers—Aetna, The Hartford, and Travelers—announced that they would come to the city’s aid with a $50 million collective commitment...