At the forefront are several proposals that Healey included in her own $3.5 billion package to boost life sciences and clean energy and other climate-related businesses in Massachusetts.
It would allow the state to borrow $500 million for life sciences and $400 million for so-called climate-tech initiatives over 10 years. In turn, the bill would increase tax incentives for life sciences companies by $200 million and create $300 million in tax credits for climate-tech investments, at $30 million a year over a decade.
Massachusetts is already considered to be at the forefront of drawing climate-tech businesses and investments. But similar to the state’s bet on life sciences 15 years ago under then-governor Deval Patrick, Healey — and now the House’s proposal — seeks to elevate the state ahead of rivals such as California and New York.
One state report suggested that for every dollar the state invests, it could spur nearly $16 in economic activity, said Representative Jerald Parisella, the House chairperson of the Legislature’s economic development committee.
“It seems like a good investment. We want to make sure we take advantage of it,” said Parisella, a Beverly Democrat.
The focus has drawn support from both business leaders and environmental advocates, who say the proposal can push the state toward two goals: to provide an economic driver beyond Greater Boston and help Massachusetts hit its target of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
“We’re looking to ensure that climate tech goes statewide,” said Casey Bowers, executive director of the Environmental League of Massachusetts’ Action Fund. “It’s a bit of a new area for us to be working on, when you’re talking about an economic development bond bill. But we know we have a lot to do to reach our climate goals.”
Notably, the bill does not include closely watched language that would help advance a $500 million plan to build a new stadium for the New England Revolution along the Mystic River in Everett. Everett officials and Senate leaders have sought language to remove 43 acres from a so-called Designated Port Area, a state classification that limits certain waterfront parcels to industrial uses. That move is viewed as one of the first steps to enabling a stadium to be built there.
The property currently is home to a decommissioned section of a power plant that Wynn Resorts acquired last year, and sits on Boston’s doorstep, just across the Mystic from Charlestown and across Route 99 from the Encore Boston Harbor casino.
The Senate had already passed the measure as part of a supplemental budget bill last year, but the language was stripped out amid negotiations with House leaders. House Democrats said at the time they were surprised by some elements of a community benefits agreement between Everett and the Kraft Group that became public just weeks earlier.
A separate bill that would remove the site from the DPA sits in the Senate. But it’s unclear when, or whether, it will advance, either as stand-alone legislation or as an addition to the economic development package as it snakes its way to Healey’s desk.
Parisella said House leaders’ decision not to include the language in the bill isn’t indicative of their stance on it. “We just felt it’d be best in a separate piece of legislation,” he said.
An aide to House Speaker Ron Mariano said he was not available for an interview Monday. State Representative Aaron Michlewitz, the House’s budget chairperson, did not respond to an interview request.
The House bill pushes an array of other plans. It includes a provision that would provide $5 million in annual tax credits for live theater productions bound for New York City or national tours. The measure would provide a 35 percent credit for in-state employment costs and 25 percent for other expenses.
House leaders are also seeking to create a $5 million “digital interactive media” tax credit pilot program, including for video game producers, covering up to 25 percent of payroll costs. They adopted a separate Healey plan to create a $10 million internship tax credit program, under which employers can get up to a $5,000 credit for each eligible paid intern they hire.
The House folded another measure, also proposed by Healey, to create a $250 million fund that could “support large, transformational projects to drive economic growth,” a broadly worded requirement that Parisella said could serve as a “catch-all” as the state tries to attract businesses.
“We’re in a fight for our economic vitality. It’s amazing what other states, other cities, some countries are putting up to compete,” said Jay Ash, president and chief executive of the Massachusetts Competitive Partnership. The $250 million fund is “meant to give the state more flexible resources. If we don’t compete, we’re going to fall behind.”
All told, the bill mirrors or hews closely to what Healey, a first-term Democrat, sought in her own plan on several fronts.
“If the governor’s bill was a coloring book, there’s not a whole lot of coloring outside the lines,” said Doug Howgate, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, a business-backed budget watchdog.
Lawmakers did include separate language to rename the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center after Menino, Boston’s longest-serving mayor, under whom the Seaport began its transformation from a sprawl of parking lots into a lively new neighborhood.
But it’s the proposed investments in the clean-energy sector that loom among the largest commitments in the bill’s bottom line.
Healey has routinely called on the state to invest more in the clean-energy sector, including during her May trip to Rome, where she spoke to world leaders. In a speech at a climate summit at the Vatican, she said her administration is seeking to invest $1.3 billion overall in technology to boost resilience to climate change and accelerate the transition to clean energy in the state.
”I want to be the global innovation lab for the clean-energy revolution,” she said.
Samantha J. Gross of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
Matt Stout can be reached at matt.stout@globe.com. Follow him @mattpstout.
