Diehl, Healey appear at Worcester forum
Discuss policies for economic health of Mass.
As the Massachusetts gubernatorial race enters its final stretch before the Nov. 8 election, the Democratic and Republican candidates appeared Saturday at a convention in Worcester, where they answered questions about economic policy, housing, and the environment.
Appearing separately, Republican Geoff Diehl, a former state lawmaker from Whitman, and Attorney General Maura Healey, a Democrat, addressed a gathering at Polar Park organized by the Massachusetts Association of Community Development Corporations.
Diehl trailed Healey in the latest Suffolk University/Boston Globe/NBC10 Boston/Telemundo poll, which found he had support among 33 percent of 500 likely voters compared to Healey’s 56 percent.
Moderator Simón Rios, a reporter for WBUR, posed the same questions to both candidates, who also heard stories from members of the audience about their experiences purchasing homes or running small businesses in Massachusetts.
Diehl, who is backed by former president Donald J. Trump, went first.
Asked about gentrification and displacement, Diehl said housing affordability is the state’s top concern.
“The best way to make sure people can afford homes is to provide a robust economy with jobs and wage growth,” said Diehl, who promised to recruit new businesses to move to Massachusetts and to support established ones.
He said he also supports community land trusts and Governor Charlie Baker’s new rules aimed at increasing multifamily housing in communities that are served by the MBTA.
Rios asked Diehl about whether he supports extending a program that provides a 50 percent state tax credit to donors who contribute to community development corporations. The program offers up to $10 million this year and is scheduled to end in 2025, when the cap will rise to $12 million, according to a Department of Revenue regulation.
Diehl said he would extend the program, but he is “not necessarily sure” he would make the tax credit permanent. He said he would keep the cap in place for now as the economy faces “some significant headwinds.”
On a question about his plans for making homes less reliant on fossil fuels, Diehl said he believes in using natural gas as a “stopgap” while the region’s renewable energy power grid develops.
“I’m going to keep all energy options on the table until we can make that transition happen, but I definitely have the same goal of trying to make sure we get to as...much renewable generation as possible,” he said.
Diehl, who owns a performing arts school in Hanson with his wife, answered a question about how he would help smallbusiness owners. He said he wishes state lawmakers had dedicated more federal pandemic relief funds and surplus state tax dollars to aiding small businesses and unemployed workers.
The decision by Raytheon Technologies to relocate its global headquarters from Waltham to Virginia, and upcoming move of gun manufacturer Smith & Wesson from Springfield to Tennessee, will impact the state’s economy, Diehl said.
“We’ve got to replace those businesses with small, growing businesses that emerge in our state across the Commonwealth,” he said.
Healey, like Diehl, said housing affordable is the state’s top concern.
Her plans include expanding the state’s emergency residential assistance and housing voucher programs, establishing a child tax credit that would assist more than 700,000 families, and investing in efforts to preserve existing housing.
Healey said she supports extending a tax credit on contributions to community development corporations and lifting the spending cap.
“It’s proven to be such a sensible and worthwhile investment,” she said.
On the environment, Healey said she would convene a council focused on environmental justice, dedicate federal funds for pandemic relief and infrastructure to support communities that are disproportionately impacted by pollution, and invest in clean energy for public housing, schools, and municipal buildings.
“A lot is possible,” she said. For small businesses, Healey said she would continue Baker’s programs to support that sector.
“Our small businesses are the lifeblood of community. They provide the fabric to community,” she said. “They’re a huge economic engine and driver. Second, our small businesses definitely need more support.”
Healey said she would also introduce an office dedicated to helping small businesses establish relationships with banks and take advantage of government assistance like the federal Paycheck Protection Program that was offered earlier in the pandemic. Some small businesses struggled with that program, she said, because they couldn’t afford legal or accounting expertise to guide them through the process.
She has also proposed a program that would provide free trade education or job training to out-of-work residents who are at least 25 years old.
Healey said she would seek to help businesses owned by women and people of color access capital.
“It is about capital, and you either have it or you don’t,” she said.