As the Baker-Polito team considers the road ahead, here are some ideas for the administration’s consideration.
Make the state a municipal partner. State bureaucracy remains a major impediment to local development projects. Municipalities carefully build consensus around worthy projects over time, only to find they must often wait years for various state agency reviews and funding. The MassWorks infrastructure program, predicated on a municipality’s readiness to proceed, is a notable exception and a model for how other state programs should be redesigned to meet municipal and regional timetables.
Be smart, use data, say thank you.The state collects a massive amount of data from businesses. All that aggregated data, from unemployment insurance to tax filings, should be used to inform state economic investment and programmatic reviews. It’s logical, but it doesn’t happen. A 2010 Boston Globe report critical of the state’s Economic Development Incentive Program revealed difficulties the state had in verifying promised job creation by beneficiary businesses.
Meanwhile, across town, the state’s Department of Employment and Training Services collects the very information needed. State government has research capacity and access to every bit of data required to make good decisions, but the research and data aren’t housed in agencies charged with administering economic development programs. Additionally, most businesses are under-informed about state business support programs.
When the commonwealth receives a filing from a business, it should send an electronic “thank you” back, along with a “how can we help you” note. That’s an easy marketing opportunity currently missed.
Reduce state tuitions and fees for STEM undergrads. We need more graduates with science, technology, engineering and mathematics degrees for Massachusetts to be competitive globally in science-based industries. As over 80 percent of resident graduates of the University of Massachusetts system stay in Massachusetts, reducing tuition and fees for STEM undergraduates makes sense. Why not incentivize needed STEM careers by lowering costs for these students?
Lift more boats. Efforts around the Gateway Cities of Massachusetts, our larger second-tier cities experiencing various levels of disinvestment, have been noble. More work is needed to grow investment in these urban cores. A push for housing development around urban center transit nodes is a good start that can be complemented by lending programs that will support more adjacent commercial investment. The state can start with a pilot loan-loss reserve fund, by which a minimal state capitalization can be matched by commercial lenders in a Gateway City, establishing a lending fund in which the investment risk for consortium commercial lenders is lessened. Along with more traditional community development programs, this approach should raise the tide of investment in urban cores.
Approach housing on a regional basis. Banker & Tradesman’s own Scott Van Voorhis recently assailed municipal zoning by-laws as a primary contributor to impeding the development of housing in Massachusetts. As Chapter 40B trumps municipal zoning by-laws, it’s difficult to see how zoning is the main culprit. Concentrating on the pursuit of 10 percent affordable housing in every community, the goal of 40B, makes our state’s housing policy all about municipal borders rather than regional needs. Boston is well above the 10 percent affordable threshold of 40B, but there is a growing strain on affordability in Boston. Developers are building high-end units in Boston, not affordable units. So, how does such current state housing policy provide any relief to Boston in meeting its needs? Former Secretary of Environmental Affairs Bob Durand led the way years ago with a focus on transit-oriented development, connecting infrastructure investments with housing development with an eye toward serving regional needs. It’s a focus to which we should return.
Don’t abandon education reform. Just what does adopting the Obama Administration’s “Race to the Top” education agenda mean for the state that is at the top of the national K-12 educational pyramid, thanks to the 20-year effort of the Massachusetts Education Reform Act of 1993? Massachusetts has adopted Race to the Top with little serious debate. Let’s hit the brakes and have a serious discussion of what our standards of student, teacher and school performance should be, how performance will be assessed, and how student achievement is accomplished.
Consolidation. Per my last article, the numerous state economic development agencies should be consolidated, to reduce redundant functions and increase collaboration and innovation.
Peter Abair is director of economic development and global affairs at the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council (MassBio).
