With funds dwindling in some accounts and a $666 million bill that would replenish them still before a Senate committee on the day of a new legislative deadline, the state’s economic development chief said Tuesday he is not concerned.
“I haven’t thought about the possibilities of it not being done,” Housing and Economic Development Secretary Jay Ash told the News Service, citing a “great deal of support” among lawmakers for economic development bills.
“The legislature has a long track record of doing economic development bills,” he said. “Our economic development bill in 2016 was adopted on the last day of the last session, in the last hour.”
Ash testified before the Senate Bonding Committee, which is weighing the version of the bill (H 4732) that cleared the House a week ago. To reach Gov. Charlie Baker’s desk, the bill needs to pass the Senate, and lawmakers must resolve any differences between the two versions.
Formal legislative sessions are set to end for the year on July 31.
Under a new rule adopted last year, the House and Senate cannot appoint conference committees to reconcile competing bills after Tuesday, July 17. Lawmakers could suspend the rule, which requires a two thirds vote in both branches, or work out differences informally without appointing a conference committee.
Ash told the committee that the bill needs to pass to reauthorize the MassWorks infrastructure grant program beyond this year.
“In MassWorks, we currently have an open round for the public infrastructure program that entices private investment, so we’re good for this year, but that would leave us with $36 million,” he said. “We put out about $80 million a year in MassWorks funding, so in theory we wouldn’t be able to run a full round if this bill was not adopted and the reauthorization did not take place.”
The House approved $300 million for MassWorks, and $25 million for matching grants for colleges and universities to collaborate with private industry through the Massachusetts Manufacturing Innovation Initiative (M2I2). Both funding levels match what Baker included in the original bill he filed in March.
Ash said that if the bill does not pass and new funding for M2I2 is not authorized, the state would have to “reduce our commitments that we’ve made.”
“We’ve informed our partners of that, but we would like to fulfill those commitments because businesses and institutions, along with the federal government and the state, are seeing huge benefits from this,” he said.
