Baker’s $3.5 billion plan charges ahead
Speaker after speaker told a joint legislative committee considering an economic development proposal which would also grab billions in federal funding the same thing Monday morning: the bill needs to pass and it must pass now.
“Right now we have the ability to create the building blocks of success,” Brockton Mayor Robert Sullivan told the committee. “We need to make sure that the money is spent wisely, and that we get the biggest bang for the buck. That’s what my nana used to say.”
Under consideration is Gov. Charlie Baker’s Future Opportunities for Resiliency, Workforce, and Revitalized Downtowns Act, or FORWARD, a $3.5 billion investment plan he says the hundreds of cities and towns across the commonwealth need to compete in the future and in a world where the nature of where people work has changed entirely.
Time, the Governor and nearly every other speaker before the Joint Committee on Economic Development and Emerging Technologies said, is not on anyone’s side.
“If we don’t get those dollars into the hands of cities and towns across the state — now so that they can begin the process associated with planning, designing and reimagining and jump-starting their local economies and their downtowns — we’ll continue to see empty storefronts and quiet main streets for years to come,” Gov. Charlie Baker said.
That’s not the only problem.
A huge portion of that $3.5 billion would be funded by $2.3 billion from the American Rescue Plan Act, with the balance covered by $1.2 billion in capital bond authorizations.
ARPA funds must be committed by states by the end of 2024 and spent by the end of 2026. The law prioritizes investing in projects that are defined and narrow in scope so they can be completed on time.
Pittsfield Mayor Linda Tyer said her city has shovel ready projects just waiting for the money to move along.
“The FORWARD act has the potential to transform my city and all of your communities, please pass the FORWARD act,” she said.
The bill sets aside $750 million for clean energy projects, $970 million downtown revitalization, sends $300 million to the unemployment fund, and $270 million in affordable housing affiliated programs and grants.
“The legislature must act now — I know you’ve already heard that from everybody else,” said Sara Ross, the founder of UndauntedK12, a nonprofit focused on showing schools how to help tackle climate change.
Meg Mainzer-Cohen, president of the Back Bay Association, asked the committee to slow their consideration of just a single matter.
Baker’s bill would also authorize the sale of the
Back Bay’s Hynes Convention Center.
Baker says it needs to go, that Boston is the only city running two convention centers and that it’s not seen real use in years.
Mainzer-Cohen thinks otherwise. She said the center has steady booking through the next year, and that it supports thousands of jobs in the area. She encouraged the committee to seriously consider whether they had thought the sale through.
“This is not our first time at the ‘sell the Hynes rodeo,’” she said. “The Hynes has been an essential player in our neighborhood.”