In spite of unanimous passage by both the House and the Senate, in the final days of the legislative session a compromise economic development bill failed to reach the Governor’s desk. While the two versions of the bill differ significantly on policy proposals, the framework for both bills is the same: authorizing capital spending that supports the state’s five-year economic development plan, continuing the state’s successful life sciences initiative, and creating a similar initiative for climate tech.

And that, according to the Massachusetts Competitiveness Index Report released Tuesday by the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, UMass Amherst Donahue Institute and Massachusetts Competitive Partnership, has been our high-wage, high-knowledge industries, stemming from the historically close ties between its education system and economy.

Doug Howgate, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, said the data show that both wealthy families and lower-income working class families are leaving the state, while families that land in the middle seem more willing to stay.

The analysis by the Boston-based Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation comes as policymakers on Beacon Hill seek to stem that population loss, and even as agreement on Democratic Gov. Maura Healey’s signature economic development bill remains frustratingly out of reach.

Unlike many competitive rankings, the MTF index tracks a broad set of metrics. The results underscore the sometimes-overlooked fact that Massachusetts’ overall competitive standing is solidly in the middle of the pack.

The MTF hopes that its benchmark, to be updated annually, can inform policy discussions and track improvements and declines.

MTF's 2024 Massachusetts Competitiveness Index Report is designed to put forward a framework to assess how Massachusetts stacks up compared to other states, key economic and geographic competitors, and itself.

The report looks at 26 different metrics organized into four critical areas:

•Economic Health
•Population and Labor Force Trends
•Business, Employment, and Investment Factors; and
•Resident Life
 

On March 1st, the Healey-Driscoll administration unveiled their economic development bill, An Act relative to strengthening Massachusetts’ economic leadership, also known as the Mass Leads Act. The House and Senate have now each acted on their own versions of the bill, and a conference committee has been appointed to reconcile all differences and produce a compromise package. 

On March 1st, the Healey-Driscoll administration unveiled their economic development bill, titled An Act Relative to Strengthening Massachusetts’ Economic Leadership or the Mass Leads Act. Through $2.815 billion in capital spending authorizations, $675 million in additional tax credits over ten years, and a number of policy provisions, the bill puts into action many of the elements of the Healey-Driscoll administration’s economic development plan, released in December of 2023.

This Brief will break down each of the major components of the bill. Specifically, it will:

Three of the most-read stories from CommonWealth ... related to transportation, and the top story, about a Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation study, focused on transportation and the fallout from COVID and remote work on the downtown Boston office market.

The top story, coming in at 53,000 pageviews, focused on the Massachusetts Taxpayers report arguing that urban economies are “on the precipice” due to high office vacancy rates and low public transit ridership. The rise in remote work and the poor state of the MBTA were partly to blame.

Already, for seven of the past nine years, Massachusetts has trailed the U.S. in private sector job growth, according to a 2022 report by the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation. Reasons include not only the cost of housing, which the Healey Administration is striving to address, but also the high cost of unemployment insurance and electricity