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Saying she wants her administration to be known as one “driving economic development,” growth and opportunity, Gov. Maura Healey  announced plans on Thursday to put before the legislature a $987 million “immediate needs” bond bill for housing and economic development programs.

At a press conference in western Massachusetts, Healey discussed the first bill she’s filing, saying it will “ensure that critical housing and economic development programs across the state can continue to serve the people of Massachusetts without interruption.” It seeks to provide funds to existing infrastructure programs “that have exhausted existing resources,” the administration said, including MassWorks and the Middle Mile Broadband program.

The administration also filed a bill on Thursday to authorize the state to borrow an additional $400 million to fund road and bridge work under the Chapter 90 program for the next two years. Cities and towns are seeking a minimum $600 million commitment over two years.

Healey announced the bill filings during a visit to Greylock Works in North Adams, joined by Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll, Housing and Economic Development Secretary Yvonne Hao, Rep. John Barrett and Sen. Paul Mark.

Bill Would Add $400M to MassWorks

The nearly $1 billion “immediate needs” bond bill would authorize funding for cities and towns, including targeted funds for rural and small towns to support libraries, seaport development, housing, tourism and planning, the governor said.

It also will seek to bolster the broadband program, “which expands high speed internet to communities across the state, especially rural communities here in the Berkshires, and we understand how important the work is to make that real,” Healey said. The bill would allot $9.3 million for broadband infrastructure, particularly in central and western Massachusetts.

The bill will also include $400 million for the MassWorks Infrastructure Program and an extension of its authorization into fiscal year 2028. MassWorks provides grants to municipalities for large infrastructure projects that support housing production in place of levies on developments and create jobs. The program has helped fund more than 500 projects since its creation in 2011, according to the governor’s office. It is also one of the three grant programs towns and cities will lose access to if they don’t comply with the state’s MBTA Communities zoning reform, a key milestone of which hits at the end of this month.

The governor said she and her team made the announcement at Greylock Works in North Adams because it is a “prime example of the impact of the MassWorks program.”

The location is a revived cotton-spinning mill in the small town in Northwestern Massachusetts that is used for events such as weddings and conferences, and also hosts a restaurant, a co-work community, a culinary lab, a distillery and Berkshire Cider Project. Several million dollars in MassWorks grants has gone into the redevelopment of the mill.

“These are the types of innovative projects our administration wants to support across the state and with the 2023 Immediate Needs Bond Bill, we’re one step closer to doing just that,” Healey said.

Healey’s $400 million figure matches the amount included in a version of the nearly $3.8 million economic development bill that lawmakers tried to get passed before the end of formal sessions in July. Top Democrats ended up slicing borrowing authorizations, including for MassWorks, out of the spending bill that former Gov. Charlie Baker signed in November. Bond measures require a roll-call vote that is only possible in formal sessions.

In December, Baker said he thought MassWorks funding would dry up by the fall of 2023 without passage of a bond bill this upcoming summer.

$110M for Housing Development

The bond bill the governor described on Thursday does, however, include the topic of another of her campaign promises – housing.

The bill will propose $110 million in authorization for housing creation and preservation, including affordable rental housing, public housing, climate resilient housing, and transit-oriented development, according to her office. The Housing Stabilization Fund, Housing Innovations Fund, Smart Growth Housing Trust and Facilities Consolidation Fund are among the programs that would get additional authorization through this funding.

Housing was a cornerstone of Healey’s campaign, and she said on her inauguration day, “If we want Massachusetts to be a home for all we need to build more places to live and we need to make sure those homes are within reach.”

Her first bill will also include $48 million for the repair and modernization of public housing, which the governor’s office estimates would support about 80,000 residents across 230 municipalities.

In addition to the $400 million toward MassWorks, the legislation will also propose additional authorization for $34 million for the Underutilized Properties program, which is used for redevelopment of abandoned or underutilized properties; $5 million for the Rural and Small Town Development Fund; and $1 million for Community Planning Grants.

It also will earmark $104 million for the Clean Water Trust to help finance municipalities’ efforts to improve local water quality.

To take advantage of large amounts of funding available from the federal government, the bill also proposes $200 million as a state match for federal grant programs included in laws such as the CHIPS and Science Act. It additionally will include $40 million to enable the state to apply for federal broadband and digital equity initiatives, and $30 million to compete for community broadband dollars through the bipartisan infrastructure law.

Healey said her administration also plans to file a more comprehensive bond bill later in the session.