Healey Prioritizes Housing Production, MBTA Investment In Annual Speech

Gov. Maura Healey on Thursday evening laid out her priorities for the year, focusing on the state's competitiveness and relationships with the business community.

Addressing legislators and the public in her annual State of the Commonwealth address, Healey pledged to prioritize the state's economic competitiveness through more housing production, investment in the MBTA and making it easier to do business in Massachusetts. 

She also reflected on last year's accomplishments, including the signing of two ambitious bills — the $5B Affordable Homes Act and the $4B economic development bill — that she hopes will create positive impacts for the state this year.

"As I look across this room tonight, I think about all the work we were able to do together working with others across this great state," Healey said at the State House on Thursday. "In that work together, I'm proud to have been a part of working to complete one of the most productive legislative sessions in Massachusetts history: tax cuts, housing, economic development, healthcare, climate, veterans, to name a few."

One of Healey's biggest priorities this year is to get the MBTA fully up and running again. She proposed an $8B investment in the transportation sector over the next 10 years that would go beyond the MBTA to repair and renovate local infrastructure projects.

For years, the MBTA has faced challenges from faulty trains, shutdowns, slow zones and delays that have made it difficult for commuters to get in and out of Boston and travel across the state.

The delays also worried local businesses and downtown real estate owners who said the public transit system's issues have hurt the downtown economy. With the appointment of Philip Eng as general manager of the MBTA, the system has seen big improvements, including a slow-zone-free subway in Greater Boston for the first time in 22 years.

"We'll put the entire system, for the first time in a long time, on stable footing," Healey said. "The bottom line is, you're going to wait less and you're going to move faster, and we'll be a state where everyone gets where they need to go safely and affordably, sustainably and on time."

Healey also touted the $5B Affordable Homes Act that passed in August. The law is filled with policies, funds, committees and bonds to make it easier to produce more housing across the state. State housing programs saw a 50% increase, adding 4,000 homes and helping 2,400 first-time homeowners last year, Healey said.

Her goal for this year is to fully put the act in motion to ramp up housing production in tandem with the MBTA Communities Law, which has already had 116 towns file compliance plans. Healey said she is hopeful about the thousands of new units in the pipeline.

"This year, with the Affordable Homes Act, we are going to get shovels in the ground and people in homes," Healey said. "A $5B act we passed, thank you so much. I was able to sign it, but now we are going to implement it."

Healey also affirmed plans to end broker fees for renters. She plans to include the ban in her budget proposal, following in the footsteps of New York City, which banned the fees last year. 

Healey also touched on the importance of infrastructure projects including the West-East rail, which has received millions in investment to renovate the train corridor in parts of Western Massachusetts from Springfield to Pittsfield. And she highlighted Massachusetts receiving $1B, the biggest federal bridge grant in the state's history, to renovate the Cape Cod bridges.

Healey also discussed Steward Health Care and her administration's role in the struggling hospital system exiting the state after it filed for bankruptcy and risked the closure of several hospitals in its portfolio.

"In the course of that we saved six hospitals, protected 13,000 jobs and shored up the stability of the healthcare market," Healey said.

Steward faced scrutiny from local and federal officials for its handling of the hospitals. The healthcare system had missed millions of dollars in rent payments to landlord Medical Properties Trust and cut its investment in care. 

Earlier this week, Healey signed An Act Enhancing the Market Review Process, granting greater authority to state commissions and agencies, including the Attorney General's Office, to review and scrutinize private equity investments in Massachusetts' healthcare systems.

Healey also said she aims to make it easier to do business in the state. Due to high housing costs, extensive regulations and the overall cost of doing business in the state, private sector leaders often say it has been hard for businesses to thrive.

"Our businesses, small and large, provide jobs and support communities, so we have to support them in every sector and every corner of our state," Healey said.

She said she will push the state's economic team to review business and licensing regulations over the next three months, with the goal of "cutting the red tape" and making it cheaper and faster to do business in the state.

Healey also looked ahead to the rollout of the state economic development bill passed last year. She said it will spur major investments in life sciences, cleantech research and artificial intelligence.

The $100M investment in AI will in part go toward the expansion of a data center in Holyoke that will support research for the nearby universities and businesses. In October, the Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center received $5M from the state to establish a quantum computing complex on the site that would cost roughly $16M.

"We are building new homes, labs, new data centers, new manufacturing plants," Healey said. "We need this power, and we’re going to go get it. Two hundred and fifty years after we started a revolution, it’s Massachusetts’ moment again."

Healey finished her speech by saying she plans to work with the incoming Trump administration to push the state’s priorities. Massachusetts officials have already been working to shore up and deploy federal funding, especially for the state's rapidly growing clean energy sector.

"In four days, there will be a transition of power in Washington," Healey said. "I assure you we will take every opportunity to work with the federal government in any way that benefits Massachusetts."