Lawmakers seek $700m for projects, job stimulus
Final plans call for upgrades to Fenway area
By Scott Helman, Globe Staff | June 15, 2006
Legislative leaders finalized plans yesterday for more than $700 million in new state spending, earmarking millions for transportation improvements in the Fenway area sought by the Red Sox, for upgrades to cultural facilities across the state, and for a host of projects in lawmakers' home districts.
The long-sought agreements on the two big-ticket spending bills -- a supplemental budget measure and economic stimulus legislation -- are expected to come up for votes today in the House. The Senate, too, could take them up as early as today.
The intent of the economic development measure is to generate jobs and kick-start the still-sluggish Massachusetts economy through a variety of state investments, incentives, and grant programs. The spending bill is stuffed with local projects, including drainage repairs, roads, and community health centers.
``All we can do at the state level, I think, is try to encourage, help, and stimulate the economy -- on job creation and economic development," said state Senator Steven C. Panagiotakos, a Lowell Democrat, speaking of the economic stimulus package. ``I think this bill does this in a lot of areas."
Both bills had been stuck in negotiations for months, relegated to the back burner until the House and Senate leaders hashed out the landmark healthcare bill that Governor Mitt Romney signed into law two months ago. The lawmakers are taking up the proposed extra spending as tax revenues in Massachusetts have soared, even though fiscal conservatives have criticized the millions of dollars in projects as irresponsible.
The more than $700 million in spending would be a combination of one-time expenditures and funds to be appropriated every year. The money would come from both revenue the state has on hand and cash it would raise through future borrowing. (Both bills were released last night.)
Romney's communications director, Eric Fehrnstrom, declined to comment last night on the amount of new spending, but he said the governor is sure to veto some aspects of the bills.
``As with any large appropriations bills, there will inevitably be areas where the governor differs with the Legislature," Fehrnstrom said. ``And we will make our objections known after we review these bills."
A primary focus of the economic stimulus plan is the life sciences industry. The bill creates a new state entity designed to foster research and development by helping to raise private money for projects and providing necessary state financing. The bill also envisions a new $70 million nano-biomanufacturing center at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, where university researchers and private companies can develop cutting-edge technology and products. (The bill would provide UMass-Lowell with $21 million in cash and $14 million from bonds and authorize the school to borrow another $35 million.)
``The bottom line is, unless you can commercialize it, there's no economic benefit to it," Panagiotakos said. ``That's why this is critical."
State Senator Jack Hart, a South Boston Democrat who helped write the economic stimulus bill, said it is ``an effort to change the way we do business in Massachusetts, to create . . . the sense around the country and the world that Massachusetts is open for business and we're hungry for business."
The economic stimulus bill also includes $55 million for transportation-related projects in the Fenway-Longwood-Kenmore Square area, including updates of nearby commuter rail and T stations, improvements to the giant rotary between Fenway Park and the hospitals, and signal upgrades on several surrounding streets.
Some critics have faulted lawmakers for making public investments that will help a successful baseball team, but Doug Bailey, a spokesman for the Red Sox, said the neighborhood improvements help the Sox no more than anyone else.
``We acknowledge our prominence in the neighborhood, and frankly we're happy to use our celebrity to help spearhead anything that benefits all of our neighbors, and I think this does it," Bailey said. But, he added: ``There's no direct benefit to the team. I'd be hard-pressed to see how Ruggles Street, the Park Street crossover, or the Sears Rotary helps the team any more than it helps the academic, residential, and medical areas."
State Representative Daniel E. Bosley of North Adams, the leading House negotiator on the stimulus package, said the plan lays the groundwork for $500 million in spending on cultural facilities over the next 10 years, which he described as a first-in-the-nation initiative.
``It took us a long time to get here, and it took us a long time to figure out how much we had after healthcare," Bosley said, referring to the multimillion dollar healthcare bill that was signed into law earlier this year. ``But I think this is a spectacular bill."
The economic stimulus bill would also establish a new state office dedicated to bringing the entire state wireless or broadband Internet access, provide new scholarships for students who pursue math and science, commit money to redeveloping former contaminated commercial sites, and establish a sales force to lure out-of-state companies to Massachusetts, something Romney included in an economic development bill he filed in February 2005.
``We have been waiting a long time for an economic stimulus bill, because the governor believes we can and should be doing more to stimulate job growth and business expansion," Fehrnstrom said. ``We're pleased that a bill is finally on its way to the governor's desk, and we hope that it will be a shot in the arm to the economy."
Romney, who came into office in 2003 touting his business and management experience, has been criticized for the state of the economy during his tenure, specifically the lack of job growth. Romney argues that the Legislature needs to act on other initiatives he supports, such as reducing the amount of money companies are required to pay for unemployment insurance.
Among the items in the supplemental budget are a $3.2 million Agricultural Innovation Center to be established in consultation with the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
The center is supposed to ``provide a broad range of technical and business development services to the Commonwealth's agricultural producers that may add value to the producers products and services."
The budget bill also calls for $11 million in improvements to beaches and parks statewide, including $100,000 for the improvement of Saxton J. Foss Park in Somerville and $100,000 for improvements to the Vietnam Veterans park in Billerica.
Spending heavily on projects, said Barbara Anderson, a longtime advocate of lower taxes and limited spending, will only send the state into another fiscal crisis.
``If you want to stimulate the economy, they should give us more of our own money to spend on our own . . . instead of taking more than they need from the private sector to stimulate their constituencies," said Anderson, executive director of Citizens for Limited Taxation.
But House minority leader Bradley H. Jones Jr., a North Reading Republican, said many of the spending projects proposed by lawmakers make sense when you consider them individually.
Scott Helman can be reached at
shelman@globe.com.
