The following is an excerpt from a State House News Service article posted on July 22, 2024:
Lawmakers negotiating a major economic development bill have just over a week to strike a compromise on a bond bill reauthorizing the state’s longstanding life sciences initiative.
The Senate favors a smaller borrowing and tax incentive package for the life sciences sector compared to the House and Gov. Maura Healey, and the differences need to be settled during closed-door negotiations. Conference committee members Reps. Aaron Michlewitz, Jerald Parisella and David Muradian, and Sens. Barry Finegold, Mike Rodrigues and Peter Durant met met for the first time Monday.
Ed Coppinger, head of government affairs at MassBio, said the trade group is “cautiously optimistic” that House and Senate negotiators will agree on a life sciences reauthorization that mirrors Healey’s proposal.
Coppinger said a 10-year investment sends a powerful signal to life sciences and biomanufacturing companies considering coming to Massachusetts, since the businesses would need several years to set up operations and specialized equipment here. He also warned that without boosting tax incentives, companies that already have a presence in Massachusetts may be motivated to expand in other states.
“We are a top economic driver in the commonwealth. We are starting to see expansion go throughout the state, and I think this industry just continues to grow and thrive, and it’s because of the Legislature, because of the public-private partnerships that has added to the success of the Massachusetts ecosystem,” said Coppinger, a former state representative. “We can’t give up on it now.”
Rep. Ann-Margaret Ferrante, who helped the Healey administration develop its economic development plan, expressed concern to the News Service last week about the Senate’s more conservative life sciences investment, emphasizing Massachusetts must be able to fend off escalating competition from other states.
“Competitive means every day they’re trying to lure our businesses and our workers to our states,” said Ferrante, who’s not on the conference committee but is the chair of the recently revived Life Sciences Caucus.
“So the one thing that we cannot do — absolutely, positively cannot do — is allow them to steal what we have and to bring it to their state,” the Gloucester Democrat continued. “We need to make the investments that the House has proposed in order to keep them here and to make sure, as a lot of people have said, that we lengthen the lead that we have in the area and not sit on our laurels and let other people steal from us, compete with us, or do anything that diminishes what we have here in Massachusetts.”
Read the full story in the State House News Service via WWLP.