Patrick’s Capital Investment plan tilts heavily to education

BOSTON – Gov. Deval L. Patrick last month unveiled his administration’s five-year, capital-investment plan, which calls for record-level investments in higher education, transportation, economic development, housing and other infrastructure and assets.
The plan commits more than $1.2 billion to higher education infrastructure projects. The commitment includes increasing state spending for higher education in fiscal 2012 to a level over 500 percent from fiscal 2007, the year Patrick took office. Among the investments included in the plan are construction projects at every University of Massachusetts campus, and funding of more than $100 million during each of the five years for state university and community colleges.
The plan also makes strategic investments in the state’s transportation network, including $20 million for the Green Line extension project, $86 million for federally assisted statewide road and bridge-repair projects, $8.3 million to continue the planning and permitting phase of the South Coast Rail project, and $18 million for improvements to parkways managed by the Mass. Department of Conservation and Recreation.
Highlights for fiscal 2012 include: $30 million in state-supported bonds to fund infrastructure improvements for the redevelopment project at the former naval air force base in south Weymouth, $21.8 million for the Massachusetts Broadband Institute, and $44.7 million for the MassWorks Infrastructure Program, which helps municipalities seeking public infrastructure funding to support economic development and job creation.
To read the five-year plan, visit www.mass.gov/capital. &#8226