There’s a perception CT business taxes keep new employers, jobs away. A new study challenges that idea.

HARTFORD — Those who court potential new employers for the greater Hartford area say a new study will help them to break through the perception that the region is just too costly, at least when it comes to business taxes and leasing costs.

“We should lower taxes whenever and wherever possible,” David Griggs, executive director of the MetroHartford Alliance, the region’s chamber of commerce, said, before the study’s release Wednesday. “But our taxes for the kinds of companies that we are typically going after are not uncompetitive.”

The study compared the Hartford area with markets around the country that are often competitors for the same jobs, ranking Hartford alongside 14 other geographic areas. The analysis — performed by accounting firm CohnReznick and commissioned by the alliance — focused on competition for employers in the insurance and financial services sectors, often the most sought after in greater Hartford.

The results placed Hartford as the second most affordable, just behind Des Moines, Iowa. For a company leasing 20,000 square feet of space in the Hartford area, the annual business tax and leasing costs came in at $879,000. The range was $863,000 in Des Moines to $2.4 million in New York City.

“When we are out trying to attract a new company, the typical knee-jerk reaction is, ‘Oh, you’re in the Northeast, it’s a high-tax area,” Griggs said. “What we found was [the Hartford area’s] taxes were the second lowest of our competitive set.”

Griggs said the study’s comparisons will be a powerful tool in conversations with “site selectors” — firms hired by corporations to scope out markets for a good fit for relocations or expansions. But the study also should capture the attention of anyone who already lives in the Hartford area, Griggs said.

“It means growth,” Griggs said. “We have to find ways to grow. This is helping to retell the narrative, so having more people live here would mean we would build more housing. We’ll need more restaurants, we are going to need more retail. That’s what growth brings: opportunity.”

The study comes as the Hartford area seeks to shake off the pandemic. In the aftermath of Covid, employers have downsized leases as more workers remain working at home, either full- or part-time. That has left cities and towns wondering what to do with an excess of office space, not unlike many other markets around the country.

The study did not break down the costs for specific markets such as downtown Hartford where office space availabilities exceed the area as a whole.

CohnReznick’s analysis looked at real estate and equipment taxes shouldered by businesses, as well as the sales tax, state unemployment tax and commercial rent taxes and the corporate income tax — and noted Hartford’s competitive advantages.

“This unique cost advantage makes Hartford an attractive destination for businesses, particularly early-stage insurtech and fintech companies aiming to manage expenses and provide value to their investors by lowering their overall burn rate,” the study concluded.

The burn rate is the pace at which a new company not yet turning a profit spends its cash.

The study did not closely examine other factors that play into an employer’s decision to relocate or expand, but it asserted that labor force availability, access to capital and quality of life were strengths of the Hartford area — and Connecticut.

The analysis did not focus on other crucial considerations such as housing, rent, residential property taxes and mass-transit alternatives.

Kenneth R. Gosselin can be reached at kgosselin@courant.com.