11.3.2023 Cutting Taxes, Saving You Money Press Conference

okay first of all it's great to be at the Adams House in Fall River good afternoon everyone we want to thank everybody for coming out we want to talk about this important affordable housing initiatives that Governor Healey and her Administration are working on extremely hard to ensure our community is able to increase the availability of lower costing housing units a matter of great importance has

has been affected in fall river is affordable housing much like other cities across our state we have faced challenges related to housing affordability and we look towards solutions to help our residents gain relief we work with the fora housing authority and the Community Development agency to help us with these matters every single day through these Partnerships we work hard to ensure

families can find affordable housing although the work is never really done Governor Hy's new tax cut bill is an example of the important investment we're going to have in our city offering solutions for the matter of affordable housing the tax cuts that Governor Healey has proposed will be a tremendous help to encourage housing developments and lower cost living in all of our Gateway cities I of course want to thank

Governor Healey and and our local legislative delegates who are here today for their efforts in helping create solutions that will benefit both renters and homeowners in our community at this time I would like to introduce Governor Healey to speak about the administration's tax cut bills thanks great well good afternoon everyone it is great to be here in Fall River I was here just a couple weeks ago and it's

great to be back um and great to be able to stand with you mayor thank you for the warm welcome to Fall River and the great partnership and all the great work you're doing it's a treat to be here with chairman Rodricks a great Champion for Fall River also a leader and a partner on so many issues um including the tax uh package that we're going to talk about and our dear friends on the

legislature your own rep Carol Fiola is here representative Paul Schmid representative Alan Sylvia grateful we are to all of you for your partnership community and Business Leaders are here as well including Adams House developer Bob carum um Bob thank you for your vision you've done so much great development all over town and I know that will continue and this is just another example of that and to Ken Fiola

who's been quarterbacking all of this of course head of the Bristol County Economic development Consultants thank you so much Ken um excited to be back here celebrating yet another initiative uh good stuff Happening Here in Fall River and more good stuff to come I'm joined here today by Secretary of Housing and livable communities at Augustus and we want to just say on behalf of the whole uh Administration

it's wonderful to be here at Adam's house what we see is really pretty special a beautiful place that provided Generations care um initially as in nursing home and now it has a new life providing 34 homes in a great livable Community it's adding to fall River's housing stock it's also absorbing a piece of the demand for homes that's been driving up prices here and across our state and we know it's a matter of

supply and demand when there are more homes prices are going to go down and right now that is the greatest challenge we face as a state we're really proud that the hdps tax uh state tax CR credit program helped to make this happen so we're here today to talk about expanding those tax credits that helped make this project possible and also the ways in which we're trying to reduce costs make

life more affordable folks for folks across the state um that's because last month in partnership with our wonderful Partners in the legislature and of course chair rodri's uh chair of uh of of ways and means we passed the state's first major tax cut in over 20 years that's a big deal for the first time in over 20 years we cut taxes tax cuts are here they're here for everyone and they

are about saving money parents and caregivers should should know that you now will have the most generous child and dependent tax credit in the United States we also removed the two child cap which made no sense on that uh but that's a big deal that's real money going back in the pockets of families around the state we're also focused on making housing more affordable as I said because this is the single greatest

challenge facing our state and that's why we zeroed in on ways to incent further development in our tax package seniors seniors we provided relief made life more affordable for seniors who pay rent or have a mortgage by doubling the senior circuit tax breaker uh breaker tax credit that's a big deal it's $1,200 additional $1,200 back in the pockets of seniors now in addition uh we have

increased deduction for renters for commuters we cut short-term capital gains we cut the estate tax this has real consequences for folks and we're really really proud of it and for our homeowners with septic systems uh you should know the good news we tripled the tax credit now available from six grand to 18 Grand which we know is important for so many um but the Housing Development incentive program or HP this

is a really terrific program that's in play in Gateway cities across Massachusetts and it's a tax break that unlocks more housing as I said housing is our greatest challenge we need to supercharge housing production in the state and we need more developments like this and that's why we are grateful uh that the legislature uh and and our team we work together to increase the cap on H dip from $10 million a year to 57

million next year that's a big deal that's going to create a bunch of new homes all over this state we ALS also increased the Statewide lowincome housing tax credit by 50% from 40 million to 60 million that's a tax break that has a proven track record of creating more affordable homes this is all part of our affordability agenda um because lowering costs for folks making life more affordable at a time when

people are paying more for groceries more at the pump more for clothes you name it that's what we need to do so um it's also why we filed re ly something called the affordable homes act it's a $4.1 billion plan to create or preserve tens of thousands of new housing units all over the state tax incentives to unlock new homes uh ways to eliminate some of the practices some of the

barriers that got in the way of Housing Development it's absolutely where we need to go because it's going to lower costs for housing all around the state that is not only important for families who need access to to housing I don't care you know if you're talking about um access to to to affordable rental apartments or access to housing units or even the ability to downsize right now

it's really hard to find a place to move into it's also a matter of our competitiveness and we have talked a lot about this our team's focused on three things making Massachusetts more affordable more competitive and more Equitable and tax cuts and a housing Bond Bill like the affordable homes act go directly to making life more affordable as well as making Massachusetts more competitive because

the number one thing that businesses are struggling right now with is Talent how to hold on to workers how to hold on to employees how to attract employees I want businesses moving to Massachusetts and growing but they can only do that if there's some place for their employees to afford to to afford to live so that's what we're getting with initiatives like what we're proposing um and let me just

close by saying how much of a fan I am of Fall River it's great I got down here a little bit early and drove along the Waterfront which is just happening so many good things happening down there with rout 79 and other and other projects it's great to see and know that we want to invest more in Fall River um that means working closely with the delegation terrific delegation and local

leaders most recently we announced a program our community onstop for growth Awards this is a bunch of programming and money coming uh into Fall River to help our m Works infrastructure program $2 million to advance the flood prevention work at Stafford Square uh another 1.2 million to three different projects in Fall River under our utiliz underutilized properties program our site Readiness program invested over

$589,000 to help replace the old wood pile um over at the pier at Battleship Cove and you know I go through the list 50 Grand to the fabric Arts Festival for its work preserving and celebrating the C the culture of Portugal and the azors uh 85,000 to the city of Fall River for a Downtown parking study another 90,000 to the Fall River Development Authority for a corridor master plan this is all

great stuff and I'm grateful to be able to do this and work along the legislature in making sure that Fall River and the South Coast gets what it deserves so always terrific to be here um and I want to thank thank my colleagues in government and I want to introduce our Secretary of Housing at Augustus um he will uh talk briefly but just know that housing was such a priority for our team when we started

that we did something that hadn't been done before and create for the first time a Secretary of Housing and livable communities somebody whose point on driving housing production every single day around the state Secretary Augustus thank you governor and Mr Mayor members of the legislative delegation thank you for having us and thank you for being such great Partners uh governor hle and lieutenant governor

Driscoll have set out a Clear Vision in motion to address one of our greatest challenges of our time and I want to thank them for giving me the honor to serve in this role the executive office of Housing and livable communities is five months old and we've been tasked by the governor and lieutenant governor to build more housing and build it faster and we're doing just that the historic

$1 billion doll tax relief package the governor signed into law last month includes an infusion of funding for two two Key Programs which the governor mentioned the increase in the H DIP program which I know Fall River has put to very good use in the past and is now significantly increased which means more projects here in Fall River can move forward to build more housing at market

rate in this Gateway city as as well as the low-income tax credits that the governor mentioned which makes sure that there is an affordable option in developments here in Fall River and around the Commonwealth as the former city manager of a Gateway City I understand how important housing is to growth in Worcester we needed both market rate housing and affordable housing to real Revitalize neighborhoods and provide

people with safe attractive affordable places to live adding more housing not only keeps prices under control it helps Drive the local economy and puts more people in our downtowns and neighborhoods where they can support small businesses and dining even as we expand our stock of affordable housing we know that market rate rates continue to be essential part of using housing as a growth strategy in our Gateway cities

Additionally the tax bill uh as I mentioned has a huge increase in the low-income tax credit but the governor wanted more more and so the affordable homes act that she introduced two weeks ago has 4.13 billion dollar in proposed funding to supercharge all of the major tools that we use to incent housing production of all kinds it also included 28 policy changes it's the most significant housing

legislation filed in Massachusetts since 40b 50 years ago coupled with the H dip in the ltech this bill will supercharge housing production and Tackle systemic causes of the housing crisis right now we have a 1.6% uh vacancy rate in Massachusetts that means at this moment there are only 1.6% of the rental or for sale properties available across Massachusetts that's the lowest of the

50 states everybody knows somebody who's tried to purchase a home and has not not been successful after multiple times putting an offer in or how difficult it is to find an apartment that's safe and affordable and of the right size for your family that is the imperative that brings us to the affordable homes act and I would mention we've got some of our folks from public housing and some

of these folks here uh very much were involved in informing what we needed to include in this package as it relates to Affordable as it relates to public housing and this bill recommends a a tripling of the capital Investments to our public housing stock and making sure that we really make up uh for some of the Deferred maintenance that exists in public housing across Massachusetts uh with that I have the

honor to introduce somebody who needs no introduction to the folks here in Fall River somebody I had the pleasure of serving in the legislature with uh who's not only an effective uh and very talented legislator but who's also a very good person uh and he brings that heart to his work every day uh the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee chman Rod got got got thank you Mr secretary

Senator we we've known each other for a long time we've had the honor of working one one another and you know it's uh I love to hear the governor say that she loves Fall River and I want you to know that Fall River loves you uh because it was through your leadership that we in the legislature my colleagues representative Schmid fola and Sylvia and overwhelming majority of both the House and Senate

passed as the governor said the first major tax cut in over 20 years and actually was the largest tax cut in the history of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts over a billion dollars that is broad that is comprehensive it helps Working Families through uh providing The Lodges Child Care taxx Credit uh in the whole country uh it helps our employers um it helps our families it helps our communities and it

certainly helps uh providing resources to increase our housing stock as the governor said and the secretary said through so-called eight step through the low-income housing uh tax credit uh housing is the number one issue that we hear about every day as we talk to our constituents uh it affects um so much um here in Massachusetts and we need to build more housing and we are providing

the resources with this bill uh to do so so I thank the governor for her leadership for filing the legislation um I thank my colleagues um for uh joining us in supporting uh this piece of legislation and I look forward uh to hearing the sounds of uh skill saws and uh and nail guns and construction going on uh in increasing uh and building a more housing stock here in the ma in Commonwealth of Massachusetts I'd also

like to thank my good friends Jim and Jones Smith I just had a a pre-tour uh I know you're going to take some folks in your apartments it's absolutely gorgeous uh the views of Somerset are beautiful uh I'm sure and I know how beautiful the sunsets are must be uh from your Vantage um here in this building so uh thank you all uh and now I have the pleasure of introducing probably uh the foremost

expert in the com the Massachusetts on H dip uh someone whom uh when I need advice and Counsel on uh the best housing policy and how to structure uh certain policy I I rely on his advice of councel uh but that's uh Ken fola Ken uh good afternoon uh thank you all for uh coming out today uh before I get started I just want to um take this time to recognize the word work that Governor

Healey's done on behalf of getting this momentous tax bill passed within the legislature her leadership along with that of the legislative delegation is unparalleled in bringing forward the tools that we will need to move this city forward into the future and I just think that needs to be recognized when Governor then candidate Healey was here last summer we talked about the AG we talked about other things that were

important to not only for River but other Gateway cities and out of the box she started delivering these things one after another she's a go-getter she's a doer she's our kind of people we love her here in Fall River I'd also like to thank you know secretary Augustus the legislative delegation um for their work and also p uh passing this momentous momentous tax cut package that will lead to more and

Divergent housing opportunities across the Commonwealth as well as the Gateway cities uh I'm here to speak to you about the hdp component of this package which is something we've been working on for a long long time as the governor has indicated this HD program increases the annual program cap from 10 million to 57 million in fly 23 right that's a huge huge increase and it's going to meet the

demand that's currently out there um thereafter the hdp will be allocated $30 million annually again a significant investment to meet the demand that's there this along with rental deductions where previous renters were allowed to deduct half of their rent paid up to 3,000 this bill increases it to 4,000 this comprehensive package I think is probably one of the best pieces of legislation that I've ever seen emerge

from Beacon Hill and I've been working with Beacon Hill for a long long period of time with regard to the hdp hdp remains one of the most important Economic Development Tools in Fall River as well as the Gateway cities to date hdp funding has been used to create more than 200 marer rate units within the city and I'd like to thank Bob carum and Jim Wallace uh for their leadership in

their their their Vision to rehabilitate the Adam's house here there as we all know was a nursing home that fell into hard times and was fall into disrepair and they stepped up to the plate and they moved this project forward to accommodate the beautiful macerate housing units in here and once they got yeah thank you not only once they got a taste of what could be done they took their hard

earned money and their Vision to the Waterfront and they also invested more than $17 million in the residences at River's Edge along our emerging Waterfront so thank you again Bob and Jim for those you know Fall River is um you know it's a it's a great place to live as we all know and you know we certainly have our ups and downs but I think the vision of f is very positive now the activity

level in F the momentum that's being created between private sector development public investment and what's happening at Waterfront is very very exciting as a result of that excitement people from all over are starting to take notice of Fall River you know whether it's a commuter rail coming to you know coming to fruition and hopefully we'll be riding that by the end of the second quarter of 2024 is

that right okay I know supposed to be it was supposed to be December of this year so there's a little point of discussion in the Fiola household as to why that didn't come to fruition but but we got beyond that um but but right now this interest in for is so big and I was speaking to secretary Augustus earlier U before this press conference we have on our board right now more than

2,000 potential market rate units come to fruition that is a large amount of activity that's going to take place within the city over the next couple years those are construction jobs those are jobs that are going to be spread out across the board for you know purchases and supplies and collectively those 2,000 units represent a minimum of 600 million in private investment that type

of investment has never been well I shouldn't say never but at least in my time has not been seen within the city of Fall River and I think it's a testament to the people that have born and raised here and actually put in their hard money into to make it for of what it is today and now we're taking us to the next level so this right now we

all know that Fall River has 28% of its housing stock is subsidized okay Fall River is doing a very good job in pering uh allowing and also accommodating affordable housing now we're trying to balance the city bring back the middle class these H step units these mocker units help us bring back that middle class into the city City that may have fled to the suburbs during leaner times

these units are nice they're affordable they're they're funky and they're going to be a nice asset to the overall City itself as we continue to create a more balanced City this H program is one of the biggest tools we have and I am super excited and Senator and I have talked about this monthly weekly daily whenever we see each other where's the H where's the H the governor where's the H where's

the h Carol and everybody else and they delivered and for that I be for interally grateful and thankful and they will see the results of their investment here in Florida because they will be back we hope the governor comes back every week to see what we're doing here because I think when she sees What's Happening Here something that we can all be proud of so thank you again and with

that I'll invite uh the governor back to the podium for any uh questions that you may have thank you thanks thank you thank you uh any question questions about this oh boy you know my relationship with Fall River it goes back a number of years uh from the time I ran for attorney general back in 2014 through experiences over the years it's a wonderful wonderful place wonderful people wonderful history um and in one

of these places that should inspire people across Massachusetts it's been a place that's you know had to invent and reinvent itself over the years through a lot of challenging and Changing Times um a huge part of our cultural history as a state on this issue though I know in particular you know this is a community as Ken said there have been some communities that have not been as

welcoming and have done things in terms of exclusionary zoning practices and creating certain frictions with respect to the construction of affordable housing and I want to credit Fall River for the work that is done in making more H affordable housing available I also want to credit Fall River and one of the things that was so important with H dip and some of the other things we did in

this legislation was to just incent more Housing Development generally Fall River is blessed to have the delegation and elected officials who who serve and represent the people of Fall River and also to have incredible private developers when you think about Bob and Jim and the work that they do people know how to put money to good use and create a beautiful product and and that's what we have so many examples of

in Fall River it's why we wanted to make sure that in this legislation we were doing our part providing the funding to make that happen right and so I know you know and and Ken's comments about the people looking to now migrate uh back to Fall River or move to Fall River it's really true you know and the race is on and so much is happening I was here earlier driving around a lot of good is

happening a lot of good and so I just see you know nothing but um nothing but a huge upward trajectory for Fall River anything else y all cold I I know I know I know the Sun is setting well there's anything else we're good Valentina okay again huge thanks to my colleagues in government for your service and partnership to secretary Augustus for his team and uh and for all

of you who helped come out and make uh make this possible thank you well done govern well well well