The Commonwealth’s capital spending supports important public safety projects and programs that ensure the safety of our citizens and communities. Public safety capital investments range from carrying out projects at Massachusetts military facilities to addressing the equipment and facilities needs of the state police, chief medical examiner, homeland security and emergency response agencies.
The chart below shows the planned five-year capital investments in public safety, as compared to projected FY09 spending.
FY10 public safety-related investment highlights include:
$16 million for continuation of the expansion of the Massachusetts Firefighting Academy at Stow, the state’s primary training center for fire fighters, and funding to begin construction of a new fire training facility in the City of Springfield. Recently enacted legislation authorizes the Commonwealth to raise the amounts needed to fund related debt service costs for fire training facility projects through assessments on property insurance policies. Thus, these projects are reflected as “project financed” in the table above.
$1.9 million to complete construction of a new consolidated Municipal Police Training Facility in western Massachusetts.
$1.4 million for a strategic master plan for the State Police. This comprehensive study is intended to help the Commonwealth better align the facilities infrastructure of the State Police with the needs of its operations. The majority of barracks were constructed in the 1920’s and 1930’s and state policing operations have significantly changed since that era.
$7 million for the replacement program for new state police cruisers and helicopters.
It should be noted that the investments shown above do not include public-safety related information technology investments or investments in correctional facilities, which instead are included in the Information Technology and Corrections categories described elsewhere in this report.