Who is a member?
Our members are the local governments of Massachusetts and their elected and appointed leadership.
The House yesterday passed a $3.8 billion economic development bill that is technically an update to the $3.5 billion “FORWARD” bill that Gov. Charlie Baker filed in April.
The House bill (H. 5034) would raise $1.26 billion through bonds, with the remaining $2.5 billion coming equally from the state’s share of American Rescue Plan Act funding and the fiscal 2022 state budget surplus. (The governor’s bill would use all of the state’s remaining $2.3 billion in ARPA funding and $1.2 billion in bonding.)
The House bill includes many of the programmatic priorities of the governor’s bill, including:
• $400 million for MassWorks grants
• $204 million for the Clean Water Trust to support water pollution abatement, PFAS remediation and other issues
• $175 million to support affordable housing production.
The House bill expands on the original with funding for programs such as $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 would also formally establish the Massachusetts Cybersecurity Center.
The House bill proposes some significant changes to tax law, including increases in the estate tax trigger, the dependent child tax credit, and the senior circuit breaker tax credit. The bill would provide state income tax rebates of up to $250 to more than 2 million Massachusetts residents.
The MMA has strongly advocated for passage of an economic development bill this session, as well as the swift allocation of the state’s ARPA funding, 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 House bill would leave the state with just over $1 billion in ARPA funds.
The Senate is scheduled to take up its own economic development bill very soon, and differences between the two bills may need to be resolved by a House-Senate conference committee. Similar large-scale economic development bills have traditionally been done at the end of a two-year legislative session. The current session is scheduled to end on July 31.