Representative Daniel E. Bosley (D-North Adams) and the House of Representatives today overwhelmingly voted to invest $1 billion in the state’s burgeoning life sciences industry. The economic development package takes a targeted approach to growing high-paying, quality jobs, drawing biotech companies to Massachusetts, and retaining talented scientists and researchers at state institutions.
The 10-year initiative includes $250 million in tax credits for life sciences companies that promise to create jobs in the Commonwealth and $250 million in direct research grants to encourage the best and brightest in the industry to continue research in Massachusetts, and $500 million in capital investments in the industry.
House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi (D-Boston) said of the historic legislation, “The biotech industry has been a valuable economic engine for our state and the investments we voted for today will fuel that engine. This bill will open the next chapter of economic prosperity in the Commonwealth and keep our state on the forefront of science and technology worldwide.”
Of particular importance to Berkshire County, $49.5 million of the capital appropriations will be allocated for the construction of a new science and innovation center at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. As Representative Bosley said, “this building will provide excellent opportunities for the students and faculty of MCLA, a great potential for the entire region. This gets our foot in the door for quality, high-paying jobs in the innovation sector for residents of the Berkshires.”
Bosley noted that “Massachusetts is home to the world’s largest super-cluster of life science companies. Other states and countries are going to great lengths to lure these companies away from us. This bill provides us the tools to retain these companies and incentives to attract new life sciences companies to the Commonwealth.”
Other highlights of the bill include:
- Capital investments in the life sciences industry, including $90 million for the RNAi Center at the University of Massachusetts to promote the work of Professor Craig Mello, the Nobel laureate, $95 million to create a life sciences center at UMass-Amherst and $120 million to establish the Massachusetts Life Sciences Opportunity Relocation and Expansion Jobs Capital Program Trust Fund.
- Direct grants and programs for the industry, such as $40 million for seed money to address federal funding shortfalls for life science research, $30 million to aid post-doctoral and graduate students studying life sciences, the establishment of new grant programs to boost the biotechnology workforce ($25 million), and “requipment” grants ($30 million) that provide funding for the state’s vocational and technical schools to train the next generation of life science employees. This funding makes the future of the life sciences industry more inclusive for all of the residents in the Commonwealth.
- Tax incentives for certified $25 million companies per year, including a tax credit toward the purchase of property for life science companies, extending from five- to 15-years the tax exemption for life science companies and additional tax credits for companies located in Economic Opportunity Areas throughout the state.
“This bill spends our money in an intelligent manner in order to develop the life sciences industry, an important economic driver with the state. These newly created workforce training programs and the vocational tech “requipment” grants will help many schools in our region such as the McCann Technical School” said Representative Bosley, Chairman of the House Committee on Economic Development and Emerging Technologies.
16 comments:
Hey Dan,
Im closing down my business soon.
Can you point me in the right direction to take advantage of this program?
Im 50 years old.
Thanks
Dan,
This is great news and it is a shame that it passed unnoticed because of the casino train wreck...life sciences, biotech and pharma have been and continue to be the future of this State. These are companies with cutting edge technology that has the potential to better peoples lives. We aren't known as Gene Town for nothing. The great thing about this industry is that it provides immediate high paying jobs for college graduates, keeping them in the State that educated them, while allowing them to not only afford to live here, but to continue their education if they choose to do so. Don't have a college degree or not a "scientist"...okay, there are plenty of jobs in biotech that don't involve actual lab work or require a PhD in microbiology, yet all the jobs pay competitive salaries with great benefit packages, and these companies will pay for you to go to college...tuition reimbursment programs guarantee that all employees have an opportunity for career growth and development. Add in seminars, specialized training programs and general networking and a person can find themselves on a path of personal and professional growth through education and on-the-job experience. This is the type of vision our Governor should have - create jobs that allow the workers the opportunity to better themselves and their financial situation...not the rose colored ruse of dead-end casino jobs.
Dan.....This is great news,... I think? But me being me, I have to ask you the hard questions. Other than giving money and tax breaks to the bio-tech industry, how does this help John Doe average citizen? The Life Science Industry, (any business associated with the medical industry) seems to have more money from inflated high profitability than they can spend. As seems to be the politically correct way of doing business these days is to give away tax dollars to the rich without any guaranteed return for the citizenry. Is this going to lower the cost of drugs? Lower the cost of a hospital stay? Lower any medical cost at all because we gave these businesses our tax dollars to do research? It again seems to be that we are funding the system for the sake of the system, not for any end benefit the system can have for us.
Other than creating a few lab tech jobs (which are not high paying) I fail to see where we get any good return for our money. Dan, do you have any figures to support the benefits vs cost?
Quote,
The great thing about this industry is that it provides immediate high paying jobs for college graduates,
If you can afford to go to college.
Or the 50 year olds that are closing down there businesses because of the bad economy.
Please sure up the welfare system I see a big need for it very soon.
Those college kids are going to be supporting a lot of unemployed average joe's.
Good point, Jack! Unlike the Governor's bill, that left a lot of money decisions to the Life Science Center itself, we tried to make sure that a bulk of this money was spent making Massachusetts a better place to grow life science businesses rather than give money to the businesses themselves. In areas where we did invest in these businesses, we expect a return on that investment.
All of the $500 million (over ten years) in capital bonding is for public infrastructure (except for helping Tufts University build an animal facility. However, this has a public purpose.) There is money for investments in our own research such as the advanced therapeutic center at UMass Worcester Medical Center. We have some of the finest scientists in the world working there. We also invest in UMass Amherst, Dartmouth, and Lowell. We fund a science building at MCLA. We fund a spec building in the Pittsfield PEDA site as well as public infrastructure in two industrial parks that give us the potential for thousands of jobs by opening up large areas for industrial expansion.
As for the grants programs, there are a few that help to keep us out front in our job training and workforce preparedness. These include grants to train our workforce for specific jobs in life sciences as well as other new technologies. We also created a grant program for post-doctoral students and grad researchers. We are competing with other states for these students. They are the next generation of ideas, technologies, and companies. It is important that we keep them.
It is also important that we do well in a global market, so there are programs that assist in bringing our companies and ideas to the rest of the world.
There are programs for businesses also, but for the small businesses that need help in developing we provide seed money and help getting private financing. For this, we expect an equity position in the company. If we were to hit one or two of these, we are positioned to make a lot of money for the Commonwealth that would fund this industry sector forever. For larger companies, there are loan funds, not grants. This industry sector is unlike any I have ever worked with before. While there is a great potential for success, they are working in areas of new discoveries. Some will work and many others won’t. And unlike most other industry sectors where you buy a machine to make widgets and start cranking out product as soon as you are set up, this industry has a long incubation period. Some businesses will set out to discover a new drug and work on this idea for 15 years before bringing this drug to market. They need to raise billions in some cases just to keep working for all those years.
There are many, many other programs in this bill, but you get the idea. I want to make two final points. First, unlike most people who think of this industry as large pharmaceutical companies alone, we break the life science industry down into four broad sectors; pharma, research institutes such as educational and health sectors, medical devices, and agricultural (plants into products). We feel investing into our infrastructure will help to find cures for things previously thought incurable. Over the long run, I believe this does lower the cost of health care.
Second, we have the countries largest life science cluster right here in Massachusetts. It is highly successful, is growing faster than many other sectors, and has the potential of being even bigger insofar as a revenue generator for the state. But it is a business sector that every other state in the US is trying to build on, so we have many states (as well as foreign countries) trying to lure these jobs away. They all want to be what we are. So it is important that we maintain a healthy infrastructure in order to keep our competitive advantage.
Jack, if you look at all the other bills I have worked on in economic development, you will see a pattern. I don’t like giveaway programs where they can be avoided. I like programs that invest in our state to set up a “platform” on which business can build. I want to make it so that business feels it has to be here in order to be successful. I know that we are a high cost state for businesses. But we don’t talk about the advantages in being here because of our programs and our work force. We have the most educated workforce in the US. We have large capital markets. The investments we make should be in ourselves rather than zero sum giveaways. This is how we plan for the future.
Jack,Before you think I ignored it, I forgot to mention the tax credits that are in the bill. These total $25 million/yr. I didn't have these in my original bill because the tax "pool" of liability for life science companies is in the range of $700 million to over a billion dollars depending on who you talk to or how you count it. I didn't feel they should be in there as they would raise the asking price for new companies coming in, and quite frankly, if you give out $25 million in credits or breaks the first year, those companies are going to expect that the next year, so you aren't giving out $250 million over 10 years, but $25 million to a handful of companies for a ten year period.
However, as with all bills, this was a compromise with a lot of people and the Administration felt this was a much needed element to this bill. The L.S. business also was quite vocal about this piece, so in deference to the Governor, we included it. Hopefully, if this sticks throughout the rest of the process, we can use these tax breaks to keep companies here that may be tempted to manufacture their product elsewhere after doing the research and development here.
Skinless Popcorn!
Can I get a grant! I know in 15 years it would be a hit!
I can make a lot of money for the State.
I just need someone who thinks like me.
How many years later do we have to start buying them back? Isn't there a big risk of defaulting, given how tight our budgets are already? Or do you figure those problems will be gone by then?
As to states competing, why not let the other states try to compete, since we seem to be doing quite well without this give away. Doesn't this imply that we don't already have great advantages?
And what is the interst rate on the bonds? If people like the idea of biotech so much, maybe a negative interest rate would suffice, like -90%.
Everyone can't be above average.
Can't open a casino, because the jobs are 'good jobs'. You know, lke the jobs people get in existing restaurant and hotels. I guess they have bad jobs in your opinion.
So, let's support Life Sciences, because those are good jobs, so the people who have the bad jobs can migrate over to good ones.
But HEY! Who's going to work in the hotels, and restaurants?
Dan.....What sticks in the craw of most people is the fact that we subsidize all the research and development with our tax dollars then they turn around and stick it to us at the drug store. I would suggest a rider attached to the monies requiring selling the finished product at the lowest possible price, including a reasonable profit. We are not against a business making a profit but we are tired of being robbed at both ends. Just to give away goodies with no reasonable assurance of a reasonable return is insane! It is certainly not done in the business world and it shouldn't be done in the political world.....especially when it is the tax payers money not the political systems money!
the casino issue was a dead on arrival bill from day one...more of the backroom politicking on beacon hill....it will now go to the people who will vote that they want it and then the legislature will table it and tell us that it's not in our best interest.....if only the governor was astute enough to tack on raises for dimassi and crew to his bill....he could have hid it right inbetween the giveaways to the unions and the pardon of ben laguire.....
ctrem
Thanks for your support and for being there. Glad we were on the same side.
Middleboro Pro casino residents say Thank You Too.
With the 3 Casino plan there would never have been a Casino in Middleboro.
But the chances now just went through the roof in a positive way.
Thank You Dan.
Medical Devices.... (insert bad joke)
It helps restore my belief in public service when things that promote the human spirit of ingenuity succeed and those that exploit our lesser impulses fail. I would call this a good week.
Greg, Thanks, it has been a long week, but we are very near the end of the life science bill and I get to dive into the creative economy next.
Kolchak- the Life Science Stalker
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