State needs to drop "anti-business" bent
The Bay State must become more business-friendly and its leadership must find ways of attracting new companies and retaining those already here, Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey said at a Feb. 23 meeting sponsored by the Corridor Nine Chamber of Commerce.
The Republican gubernatorial candidate blamed "the anti-business rhetoric coming out of the legislature from time to time" for last month’s announcement by financial services giant Fidelity Investments that it would move as many as 1,500 jobs out of state, including several hundred from its Marlboro locations."It isn’t the government that makes the economy go, it’s you all," Healey told the crowd of over 200 entrepreneurs and company executives from Northboro, Southboro, Westboro and Shrewsbury.
If elected, Healey said she would focus on streamlining the permit process for companies to build new factories. In some states, she said, that process can take as little as 60 days while in Mass., it "could seriously take six years to start a new factory." Healey said she would look to reduce that number to 75 days.
Lowering the cost of health care, unemployment insurance and housing are other major priorities, she said.
Housing "is a supply and demand problem" and a major one for businesses when they "can’t pay people enough to afford proper housing."
She also reasserted her commitment to lowering the tax rate and to making government "more efficient and effective with less money."
See future issues of the Worcester Business Journal for more on 2006 gubernatorial candidates.
Kenneth J. St. Onge can be reached at kstonge@wbjournal.com
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