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BOSTON (State House News Service) — Gov. Maura Healey spent months clamoring for lawmakers to finish work on a sweeping jobs package she filed in March, and she wound up needing only about 60 percent of the time allotted for her review before making it law.
Healey on Wednesday signed her approval on almost the entirety of the 319-page, roughly $4 billion package that offers hundreds of millions of dollars of long-term state support to the life sciences and climate technology industries, clears the way for development of a professional soccer stadium in Everett, controversially shields a nonprofit accused of predatory lending, and more.
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The governor is approaching the midpoint of her four-year term, and has now signed into law a major jobs package, a borrowing bill she believes will supercharge housing production and a tax relief package, all of which she identified as priorities. She can add to that this week by approving a clean energy bill on her desk that contains siting and permitting reforms that her deputies helped craft.
Agreeing to almost everything the Legislature packed into the bill, including scores of project earmarks, she did not veto any language from the bill (H 5100), and she sent a single section dealing with motor vehicle liability insurance back with a proposed amendment.
"This legislation includes nearly all of the authorizations and transformative policy initiatives that I filed in March, bringing the total authorized to nearly $4 billion, and takes important steps toward implementing our economic development plan," Healey wrote in a letter to lawmakers. "This bill is essential to keeping the Massachusetts economy strong and adaptable in a rapidly changing world."
Healey had until Sunday to review the bill, but decided Wednesday that she was ready to act.
The measure reaches across different facets of the state's economy, and lawmakers crammed it full of additional policy riders -- some that are controversial -- including language admitting Massachusetts to a national nurse licensure compact and a section that opponents say could shield a Boston nonprofit facing predatory lending accusations from lawsuits.
One section would effectively protect BlueHub Capital, a Roxbury nonprofit that was sued in 2020 over predatory lending allegations, according to the Boston Globe. An earlier iteration of the language drew scrutiny from Attorney General Andrea Campbell, who described "serious consumer protection concerns," the Globe reported.
The issue burst into the spotlight Wednesday, when someone in the crowd interrupted Healey at an event in Waltham to criticize her for not vetoing the language.
"I was your attorney general. I went after the subprime predatory lenders. I'm pretty well-schooled in this, and we took them on and took them down," Healey replied. "I probably more than anybody know what it means to stand up ... and fight predatory lending."
On the borrowing front, large chunks of capital funding would flow to two industries that lawmakers and administration officials view as current or future cornerstones: life sciences, and climate technology.
The law reauthorizes another $500 million over 10 years for the state's Life Sciences Initiative, which launched under Gov. Deval Patrick and continued under Gov. Charlie Baker, and it boosts the annual life sciences tax incentive program from $30 million to $40 million.
It includes $400 million in capital authorizations and $300 million in tax incentives for the climate tech field, which Healey described as "modeled on the same type of investments that have successfully transformed our life sciences sector into a global powerhouse."
Another $100 million will go toward creating a Massachusetts AI Hub.
"Look, AI is here to stay. We've worked together to put together a program for an AI hub in Massachusetts that's going to help transform all of our industries, and that includes small businesses," Healey said in a speech to retailers on Wednesday.
Many of the law's most eye-catching provisions go beyond dollars and cents.
One section would authorize municipalities and government entities to enter into project labor agreements, which often require unionized labor only. Another would allow the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to craft an alternative certification process for some teachers, which supporters say will help diversify the educator workforce.
In a boost for the Kraft family and the New England Revolution soccer team they own, the law would remove the designated port area classification from a parcel of land in Everett, viewed as a key hurdle toward developing a new stadium there.
It took lawmakers years to get on the same page supporting the change, and the final accord prohibits public funding from flowing toward construction of the stadium. Developers would also need to strike community mitigation agreements with the cities of Everett and Boston.
Another section of the law installs new regulations around event ticket sales, including by prohibiting the use of "bots" that quickly snatch up many tickets.
Consumer groups had criticized language outlining requirements for non-transferable tickets, arguing that it would give buyers fewer choices on the secondary markets, but Healey opted to sign her approval on the full package.
Her only proposed amendment would change the amounts and effective date for new limits on motor vehicle insurance liability coverage.
Healey wrote to lawmakers that the existing limits "have not been updated in over 30 years" and signaled support for raising them.
"I support these limit increases, but I also recognize that the language as currently drafted would become effective immediately upon my signature, providing insurance companies inadequate time for implementation," she wrote. "Insurers must update current policies and submit new forms and rates to the Commissioner of Insurance for review and approval before implementing these changes. Based on feedback from industry stakeholders, pushing out the effective date to July 1, 2025 will ensure that these changes take place in an orderly way."
The bill takes a limited run at tax policy changes to boost economic development, with tax incentives focused on the life sciences and climate tech sectors and a new tax credit to assist the live theater sector.
On Oct. 31, the Tax Foundation released its State Tax Competitiveness Index, formerly the State Business Tax Climate Index, and Massachusetts ranked 41st among the 50 states. The foundation cited "overly burdensome" individual income taxes, property taxes, and unemployment insurance taxes in Massachusetts, and said property taxes here are "among the highest in the nation."
While the new income surtax on high earners is facilitating major new investments in education and transportation -- two focus areas of businesses -- the foundation blamed the 2022 constitutional amendment approved by voters statewide for "dismantling the state's formerly competitive flat income tax and making Massachusetts less attractive for productive households and businesses."
Aides said the governor "will host a ceremonial signing event in the near future" to bring more attention to the new jobs law.
Written by Chris Lisinski/SHNS