Four legislative efforts could help improve regional economic development

Date: 9/18/2019

GREATER SPRINGFIELD – State Sen. Eric Lesser believes there is four ways the Legislature could address continued economic development in Western Massachusetts.

The senator recently spoke to a small business roundtable with the Massachusetts Small Business Development Center and shared the information in an interview with Reminder Publishing.

While he noted that “Western Massachusetts is growing – it’s certainly not in free fall,” he said the region is not keeping up with the explosive growth in Boston.”

His concern is grounded in part in that populations seem to be decreasing in both Franklin and Berkshire countries. Hampden County is more stable but is also losing population, he said.

Massachusetts is really two states, he asserted: metro Boston with a “red hot economy” and Western Massachusetts with a “widening gap.”

The first legislative step is to increase the access to vocational education to fill the jobs in advanced manufacturing, he said. Manufacturers can’t find the trained employees they need at the same time there are wait lists for vocational school. There is legislation that would close the statewide wait list for education, he said.

The second step would be to support legislation that would encourage remote working in the state. Lesser has proposed a pilot program that would use $1 million as an incentive for remote workers to resettle here. He says economic models show that a $1 million investment could result in an economic impact of $10 million.

The third step would be to encourage growth of the life science economic sector outside of the Route 128 corridor. Lesser said that Massachusetts has the second highest concentration of life science businesses – the top state is California – but the industry here is not diverse – mostly white and male – and centered in the greater Boston area.

Although there are life science facilities here now, increased investment in this part of the Commonwealth would attract more people to “high end, high paying jobs,” Lesser noted.

The fourth would be to increase the connections between various parts of the state with east-west passenger rail.

While he supported casino gaming, Lesser said, “that’s what going to move Western Massachusetts, not a casino.”

He believes these steps would lead to “a growth that lifts everyone.”