WEST SPRINGFIELD — Housing and immigration dominated the discussion at the West of the River Chamber of Commerce’s Oct. 2 legislative breakfast.
This year’s panel was composed of state Rep. Nicholas Boldyga (R-Southwick), state Rep. Michael Finn (D-West Springfield) and state Sen. John Velis (D-Westfield). The latter two said that the federal government’s failure to act on the migrant crisis was forcing the state to deal with it.
“The state is left to deal with the failings of the federal government in this regard,” said Finn.
Velis went further, saying that “the federal government and our partners in Washington, D.C., are absolutely useless.”
As a result of this, Massachusetts has had to spend “money that we don’t have,” Velis said, to the tune of $1 billion a year, referring to the cost of the state’s emergency shelter system. Finn said the system is eating up money that could go to other programs. The state had the $1 billion needed for last year, and has the money for this year, but the future is a big question mark, he said.
Finn said that in a meeting with West Springfield Mayor William Reichelt, he learned about a family that has been in a shelter for 18 months.
“The program is broken. We know it. There’s currently a study group to try to understand where we can make improvements to the shelter program, how can we get people work permits, how can we get them new housing. It’s all intertwined,” he said.
Velis said that, while he was addressing the migrant crisis as a member of the Massachusetts National Guard, he asked people in shelters what the state could do better, and all of them asked why they weren’t allowed to work. He told attendees at the breakfast what he wanted to tell those migrants.
“The federal government won’t provide work authorizations. The federal government will not stop what’s happening at the border. The federal government will not give you the skills you need to go to a court, to expedite these proceedings so you can work,” he said.
On the topic, Boldyga simply stated that $2 billion going to the migrant crisis and only $1.3 billion going to the state’s 351 cities and towns was “a failure.”
On housing, Velis attributed the increasing cost of homes and apartments to supply and demand.
“We’ve got a building problem. We need more housing stock. Supply goes up, costs — I think — will go down. Demand far exceeds supply right now,” he said.
Speaking about the housing bond bill, Finn said it looks to do a lot, but spending is limited by the state’s bond cap. As such, he and Velis said alleviating the housing crisis would take a long effort.
“Unfortunately, I think it’s going to probably take eight to 10 years to unwind, and get all that money out the door and all these projects done,” said Finn.
Finn also spoke on the economic development bond bills that are currently in a conference committee, where they will be combined into one bill that the House and Senate will then vote on. He said he and Velis had a big victory with the inclusion of tax incentives aimed at bringing a data center to Western Massachusetts, which would be a $2.2 billion investment. He’s confident the language around those incentives will be in the final bill.
Boldyga said that tax deals should be for all industries.
“If they’re good for one industry, they’re either good for everybody or they’re not good for anyone. Picking winners and losers is a failing policy every day of the week,” he said.
He said the same applied to the August sales tax holiday, which he said would be good if it applied all year long.
On taxes, Boldyga said property taxes are increasing and tax overrides are happening all around the state. He said there’s talk of repealing Proposition 2½, a state law that sets a limit on tax levy increases of 2.5% per year. He attributed this to the state not providing enough money to cities and towns.
Boldyga also said Massachusetts is not competitive as a business environment. As an example, he cited a $70 million New Balance complex that was built just over the Massachusetts-New Hampshire border. New Balance is based in Boston.
“That means that Massachusetts is not competitive and they went to New Hampshire and slapped us in the face. $70 million and 150 jobs, 12 miles from the Massachusetts border,” he said.
Velis also said that the United States is not far removed enough from the conflicts between Israel and Hezbollah, and Israel and Iran, that there would be no U.S. involvement should “absolute chaos” break out.
“It’s probably safe to assume that would have calamitous, catastrophic impacts on any number of things that we’re talking about, in any number of areas,” he said.
