Patrick package looks to boost Mass. economy

BOSTON – Gov. Deval L. Patrick this month announced an economic-development package that extends business incentives to innovative companies, invests in the state’s Gateway Cities program and provides other workforce-training tools.
The legislative package includes creation of a Global Entrepreneur in Residence Program, designed to retain and attract entrepreneurs who are growing companies and creating jobs in the state. According to a statement, the program will allow “qualified, highly skilled, international students currently in Massachusetts to stay here after graduation if they are starting or growing a business.”
The package will also codify Patrick’s STEM Advisory Council, a public-private collaborative effort to increase student interest and proficiency in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Other items included in the package are:
Expand the state’s international marketing efforts to increase foreign travel, business for tourism-related industries and tax revenue.
Recapitalize MassVentures, the state’s public venture-capital-investment agency.
Revamp the research and development tax credit program to give companies whose expenditures are rising a larger credit.
The governor’s plan also invests in the state’s 26 gateway cities, which include Fall River and New Bedford. Gateway cities are defined as “midsize urban centers that anchor regional economies around the state,” facing “stubborn social and economic challenges” while retaining “many assets with unrealized potential.”
Patrick expects the economic-development package to represent a multiyear, $100 million investment. •

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