Legislature Passes to $626 Million Economic Development Bill

Link to Economic Development Bill

Legislature Passes $626 Million Economic Development Bill

Early in the morning of January 6, 2021, the Legislature passed this economic development bill to to spur job growth and help businesses. The $626.5M economic development bill (H 5250) includes a version of Governor Charlie Baker's housing production proposal to lower the threshold for local boards to approve zoning bylaw changes to a simple majority. This has been a key part of his goal of creating 135,000 new units of housing by 2025 to ease the housing crunch, especially around Greater Boston.

The bill also:

• includes $50M in funding for transit-oriented housing
• $30M for a loan program similar to the federal Paycheck Protection Program for businesses hurt by COVID-19, and funding for job training, tourism, technology and advance manufacturing. 
• $35M in loan funding for community development lending institutions to extend capital to small businesses, with a focus on minority- and women-owned businesses that have historically had trouble accessing financing and have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic
• would also seal no-fault eviction records. 
• includes a $52M set aside for science and technology research, $20M for economic development in small, rural communities, $14 M for tourism, and $6M to support artists and local museums
• creates a "Future of Work" commission to study how to promote sustainable jobs with fair benefits and workplace safety standards across industries, along with commissions that would be created to study the negative impact of changes in media on local journalism and how to help the arts community recover from the pandemic.
• includes "student loan bill of rights," which would make sure borrowers are educated about their responsibilities and borrowing rights and student loan servicers that take advantage of students could be fined and forced to repay student borrowers.
• would double the low-income housing tax credit program to $40M.

In addition, the final compromise bill capped the fees third-party delivery services can charge restaurants for their services at 15% of the price of the online order for the duration of the COVID-19 emergency. The cap also only applies to restaurants with fewer than 25 locations.

The bill passed the House 143-4 at 4 am and cleared the Senate 40-0 at 4:15 am.