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Baker reaffirms his support for state spending on biotech

Governor Charlie Baker reaffirmed his support for public spending to help the Massachusetts biotech industry, in a speech at the industry’s largest annual convention Tuesday.

 

Baker said the state has spent $650 million over about a decade to boost biotech, spurring $4.3 billion in economic activity. The Republican governor has proposed up to $500 million in additional spending over the next five years for the industry, which represents companies that develop treatments and cures for a range of diseases.

 

The new state funding, which still needs legislative approval, would include capital projects and tax credits and would be managed by the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, a state agency.

Baker, speaking at the BIO International Convention at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center, also plugged about $20 million in new tax incentives for 23 life sciences companies. He said the incentives will help create more than 1,100 new jobs across Massachusetts this year.

 

Speaking with reporters afterward, Baker defended the investments in what is no longer a fledgling industry but a major employment sector that features high-paying jobs by the thousands. State spending on workforce development programs, he said, will help ensure that Massachusetts residents “have the skills they need to participate fully in the kind of economy we’re going to have here for the next decade or two.”

 

“The bill that’s currently before the Legislature, the vast majority of the money in that bill is attached to workforce development,” he said. “That’s exactly the kind of space that I think we should be investing in.”

 

Lawmakers plan to finalize the bill and send it to the governor by Thursday, the BIO convention’s last day, the State House News Service reported.

 

Senator James Eldridge, Democrat of Acton, was one of the few senators to vote against the life sciences bill last week. Eldridge said the tax incentives that will be continued aren’t necessary to ensure biotech companies expand here. He’d prefer to invest that money in transportation or in directly improving health care.

 “When you talk about why biotech is so strong in Massachusetts, I think it’s about the higher education system, it’s about the well-educated workforce, [and all the] venture capital,” he said. “I don’t think it’s the corporate tax breaks we offer biotech companies.”

 

The initiative to boost the life sciences industry was launched by a former governor, Deval Patrick, a Democrat. He timed a 2007 announcement of his plan to coincide with the BIO convention, which was also held in Boston that year. From a stage on the convention floor, he unveiled a 10-year, $1 billion initiative that featured tax breaks, loans, and grants. It was later approved by the Legislature and launched in 2008.

 

Initially, Baker was noncommittal about continuing the life sciences initiative. But he was praised by biotech leaders last year, when he proposed extending state funding at roughly the same level as Patrick had. Baker announced his funding plan at the 2017 BIO convention in San Diego — the first BIO convention he attended.

 

More than 16,000 people from 74 countries are attending this year’s gathering in Boston, which started Monday. The city last hosted the event in 2012.

 

Since that time, the state’s biotech industry has grown significantly, with tens of thousands of people now working in the industry.