Gov. Maura Healey plans to file an economic development bill this week that includes major investments in life sciences, climate technology and artificial intelligence. But Healey said Tuesday Massachusetts will also need to take a bite out of its housing crisis to make sure key industries can continue to thrive.
Speaking on Boston Public Radio, Healey recounted a conversation she'd had earlier in the day with two women who run an executive search firm focused on life sciences. She said the pair told her that housing "is the number-one reason we can't land people here," despite the state's "incredible ecosystem of innovation and research and hospitals and companies in life sciences."
"But she said, 'I can't find an affordable place for them and their family to live, and so they go elsewhere,'" the governor recalled.
Healey said housing is the top challenge facing Massachusetts, with the state's supply shy of what's needed by a "couple hundred thousand units" after decades of underproduction.
A $4 billion borrowing bill Healey filed last October, still pending before the Legislature's Housing Committee, proposes a number of strategies to boost housing supply. It would allow property owners to build in-law apartments and other "accessory dwelling units" without needing special permission, invest in various housing-production programs, and support the conversion of old mills and other commercial buildings into housing.
"This is the time for collective action for the collective good, because the trajectory of this state [and] where we go in terms of economic development and growth — whether people decide to come to school here, study here, stay here, grow a business here; for those of us who were born and grew up here, our ability to stay here, grandparents to be near grandkids — all this depends on us taking action," Healey said.
Healey hit on a similar note in a speech Tuesday morning to the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, saying Massachusetts must choose between continuing down a path where rents soar out of reach for workers and homeownership "becomes impossible for all but a lucky few" or charting a new course where the state builds enough housing.
As Healey prepared to deliver that speech, Attorney General Andrea Campbell announced that she'd filed a lawsuit against the town of Milton over its failure to comply with the state's MBTA Communities Law. The law requires cities and towns served by the T to create a zoning district where denser, multi-family housing is allowed by right — and Milton voters rejected the town's proposal earlier this month.
Healey, in her radio interview, said she "strongly" supports the lawsuit.
Healey's housing bond bill is one of several major pieces of legislation lawmakers are expected to tackle before July 31, the last day of formal sessions for the two-year term. She'll add another item onto that to-do list this week when she files the economic development bill.
Sketching out some details of the sweeping bill Tuesday, Healey said it will fund 10-year investments aimed at maintaining the state's position as a leader in the life sciences and establishing Massachusetts as a "global innovation lab for the clean energy revolution."
The bill will also propose an "Applied AI Hub," which Healey said will ensure artificial intelligence technology can be a job creator in Massachusetts and benefit the state's businesses, workers and residents.
The governor voiced confidence that lawmakers will be able to get her priority bills over the finish line in the next five months.
"We're going to get it done," she said.
