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Guv Asks for Help on Life Sciences Bill, Senate Prez Sees ‘Legislative Input’

By Jim O’Sullivan
Gintautas Dumcius, and Michael Norton
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE

BOSTON, OCT. 3, 2007……Gov. Deval Patrick asked biotechnology industry leaders to help him push lawmakers to pass his $1 billion life sciences plan, which faces review from lawmakers who are talking more openly about expanding its scope to other industries, with House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi saying Wednesday he wants a version of the bill finalized within two months.

“I expect to at least have something that we can pass this year, before we leave in November,” DiMasi told the News Service Wednesday afternoon.

Senate President Therese Murray, meanwhile, said she has heard from other industries hopeful to access the $500 million in capital spending demarcated in Patrick’s bill for the life sciences industry.

“His initiative is an ambitious investment strategy, but it deserves our attention. And I expect with further examination and legislative input it could be a major economic development package for the Commonwealth,” Murray told a gathering of business leaders and media.

She said, “Of course, there are many other industries that we’ve heard from since this bill was put out that would like to compete for that capital funding, from manufacturing and medical devices to software companies and information technologies, and there’s no reason why they shouldn’t be included in a bigger package.”

Later, DiMasi said the pool of capital funding set aside could also be opened to technology, financial services, energy, and tourism. “A lot of the things that we did in the economic stimulus package, we could expound on, we could create more programs, and do more funding for those industries” already in Massachusetts, he said.

A DiMasi aide declined to comment on the specifics of legislation the speaker wants finalized next month.

Job growth in Massachusetts since the last recession has lagged growth in most other states and the life sciences initiative may become the cornerstone of the third legislative attempt in recent years to stimulate the state economy.

The legislation, filed July 20, hasn’t received a public hearing yet from the Committee on Economic Development and Emerging Technologies. Patrick said during a stem cell summit at the Hynes Convention Center that he wanted a hearing on the bill “promptly,” and asked the biotech industry to assert itself: “I ask you to make your voices heard, to make your interests known.” Patrick outlined his plan in May at an international biotech convention.

“When we made that announcement, I did not intend it to be a photo-op. I intended it to be a call to action,” he said, later noting to reporters that DiMasi and Senate President Therese Murray stood with him when he announced the bill (H 4234) in early May.

Patrick rejected the suggestion that he had saddled the Legislature with too many suggestions. “I think the Legislature is capable of doing more than one thing at a time, and I think that we ought to have a sense of urgency,” Patrick said.

But Murray said later that committees need time to review the proposals. “Each thing he puts together and puts out to us is a lot of work for the committees, and the committees have limited staff and limited abilities to address those, so some of them are going to have to back up,” she said. “But it doesn’t mean we’re not going to work on them.”

Patrick, she said, has brought expectations for government to act at private-sector speed, similar to his predecessor, Mitt Romney. Both came to Beacon Hill from high-level corporate positions.

“The one thing that both of them have in common is they both come from the business sector, the private sector, and they’re used to getting things done fast,” Murray said during the Regan Communications luncheon at the Boston Harbor Hotel. “They’re used to saying, ‘OK, I want to do this. OK, let’s create this, or let’s do this. That’s not government. Government is a very slow, deliberative process. So I think it was frustrating for both the former governor and the current governor that they can’t move things that quickly, that they can’t push things together or move this around or that around.”

Murray praised Patrick’s effort to reach out to lawmakers.

The critiques of a signature Patrick initiative come as lawmakers vet another of the governor’s key economic development plans. Patrick last month outlined his plan to allow three resort casinos in Massachusetts, couching the advent of such facilities as a major advance for the state’s economy. House leaders have given that plan a cool reception and Speaker Salvatore DiMasi last week said policy makers should focus on growing other high-potential industries. Patrick said he will file a casino bill “probably next week.”

The governor’s life sciences bill includes an array of tax incentives, credits and "pass-throughs" to help spur the life sciences sector, authorization of $500 million in capital spending to create and build the Massachusetts Stem Cell Bank and an RNAi center, creation of a $15 million Massachusetts Life Sciences Investment Fund to finance research, small business innovation grants, life sciences fellowships, and workforce training, and expansion of the board of the new state Life Sciences Center. The bill also gives the center the authority to build capital projects, award grants and "expend funds consistent with the plan outlined by the governor."
The Committee on Economic Development and Emerging Technologies, co-chaired by Rep. Daniel Bosley (D-North Adams), has custody of the life science bill and various casino bills, and is expected to also handle Gov. Patrick's casino bill once he files it.

After a committee hearing on other bills today, Bosley said no timeline exists for the life sciences bill and he is still meeting with people invested in the bill.

“It’s important that we foster this industry,” Bosley said. “It’s also important we take a look at other industries too and take a look at what we can do for them. We’re trying to do that but we’re trying to do it in a timely manner.”

Bosley added, “Obviously, I don’t want to drag my feet but I want to be thorough. There are things we need to address downstream,” including incubator space and clinical testing. The administration has been working on fleshing out the bill with them, he said. “They’ve been very, very helpful.”

Committee co-chairman Sen. Jack Hart (D-Boston) said they both have had preliminary conversations about the bill, and whether to expand the bill to other industries will be up to the members of the committee and the House and Senate leadership. “The focus associated with the bill is life sciences,” Hart said.

Industries are defined very broadly in the bill, said Housing and Economic Development Secretary Daniel O’Connell, who testified on one of the other bills before the committee today. O’Connell expressed hope that the bill doesn’t lose its focus and that it will move along sometime this fall in order for Massachusetts to “compete effectively” with other states attempting to steal away the Bay State’s talent.

“I think the focus of the bill should continue to be the life sciences, medical devices,” he said, with existing programs in place to address other industries and potential future initiatives down the road. He stressed he wants the resources available as “quickly as possible.”

At today’s hearing, a bill establishing a council on the state’s “creative economy” received the full-throated endorsement of O’Connell, along with the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the Massachusetts School of Art, and other groups who consider themselves part of the “creative economy.”

The bill sets up a 23-member “Creative Economy Council” within the Housing and Economic Development secretariat, charged with coming up with statewide strategies for developing the creative economy.  The bill will likely come out of committee next week, along with 10 to 12 other bills, Bosley said.

“It’s a council, but I think it’s important that they have a say and that they make recommendations to economic affairs,” Bosley said. “We’re all interested to see what this portion of the economy is looking for in economic assistance and what they can bring to the table. We’re all working in the same direction.” 

DiMasi, skeptical of Patrick’s casino plan, last week emphasized the need to focus on ways to help grow existing industries.  DiMasi has been an active supporter of so-called cultural economy initiatives, including two rounds of tax incentives approved to help attract more film industry business to Massachusetts.