Who is a member?
Our members are the local governments of Massachusetts and their elected and appointed leadership.
On July 11, House leadership unveiled a $3.8 billion economic development bill that is technically an update to the economic development bill that Gov. Charlie Baker filed in April, which contained $2.3 billion in American Rescue Plan Act funding and $1.2 billion in bonding.
The new bill (H. 5007) contains roughly $1.26 billion in bonds, with the remaining $2.5 billion coming equally from ARPA funding and budget surplus funds.
The current version of the bill includes many of the programmatic priorities of the previous bill, including $400 million for MassWorks grants; $204 million for the Clean Water Trust to support water pollution abatement, PFAS remediation and other issues; and $175 million to support affordable housing production. The bill would also formally establish the Massachusetts Cybersecurity Center.
Expanding its original scope, the bill also contains funding for a number of programs absent in other iterations of the bill. This includes $15 million to address reproductive and family planning service needs, $15 million to help reduce gun violence, and $25 million to address food insecurity.
The bill also contains some significant tax changes, including increasing the estate tax trigger, increasing the dependent child tax credit and the senior circuit breaker tax credit. Rebates of up to $250 for more than 2 million Massachusetts residents are also included in the bill.
The MMA has advocated for passage of an economic development bill this session, as well as the swift spending down of the state’s ARPA funding. The urgency on ARPA is in part to avoid the possibility of the U.S. Congress pulling back any of the state’s remaining $2.3 billion in ARPA allocations if the funds are not yet committed to projects. Federal ARPA rules require funds to be obligated by the end of 2024 and expended by the end of 2026.
The current House bill leaves just over $1 billion left in ARPA funding.
Similar large-scale economic development bills have traditionally been done at the end of a two-year legislative session. With just a few weeks left in the legislative session, lawmakers will likely move quickly on the bill.