FY2014 - FY2018 Capital Investment Plan
Report

In this, the seventh Capital Investment Plan of the Patrick Administration, we continue to set forth our strategy for economic growth:  investing in public education, supporting our innovation sectors and strengthening our infrastructure. 

We are focused on growth because growth brings opportunity. The opportunity to build a better life for ourselves and our families is what has driven this administration for the past seven years.  Positioning the Commonwealth to succeed in the 21st century and giving our children and grandchildren the opportunity to succeed is our generational responsibility.  Meeting that responsibility by expanding opportunity for all the people of Massachusetts requires economic growth.  And economic growth requires investment. 

We invest in education because education is our calling card to the world.  We invest in public higher education because it is our responsibility to ensure that our people have access to quality, affordable higher education to perform and to create the jobs of the 21st century here, in Massachusetts. 

After a generation of neglect, we have made a $2 B commitment to the renewal of our public colleges and universities.  By the end of Governor Patrick’s second term next year, projects will be completed or underway at every one of the Commonwealth’s 29 public campuses, including new science facilities at the UMass Boston, UMass Lowell, UMass Amherst, Bridgewater State, Fitchburg State, Framingham State and the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts; libraries at UMass Dartmouth, Salem State and the Massachusetts Maritime Academy; and classrooms at UMass Amherst and UMass Boston. 

We are strengthening our commitment to community colleges because community colleges are our best resource for creating lifelong pathways to opportunity – connecting students, businesses, and communities. In this plan, we make an unprecedented investment in new community college projects, including projects at Cape Cod Community College, Quinsigamond Community College, Middlesex Community College, Springfield Technical Community College and Northern Essex Community College.

We support our innovation sectors, completing – with the partnership of five universities and two IT companies – the fastest high-performance computing center east of the Mississippi in downtown Holyoke.  This plan also reflects Governor Patrick’s continuing commitment to support Life Sciences with $500 M of capital investment over ten years, including completion of the Sherman Center at UMass Medical School, UMass Dartmouth’s biomanufacturing facility and UMass Lowell’s Emerging Technology and Innovation Center, which supports cutting-edge nanotechnology research.

And we are investing in infrastructure – the unglamorous work of government – because it supports everything else.  Roads, rails, and bridges, as well as broadband, public and affordable housing, lab and library facilities are all things the public sector builds as a platform for private sector investment.

Working with the Legislature earlier this year, we secured additional funding for our transportation infrastructure.  In this plan, we increase our investment in transportation, bringing public transportation and economic opportunity to the people of Fall River and New Bedford through the South Coast Rail Project, reducing congestion and increasing mobility in Somerville and Medford through the expansion of the Green Line, and bringing the MBTA to a state of good repair through improvements to track and replacement of cars.

Through our nation-leading Accelerated Bridge Program, we have reduced the number of structurally-deficient bridges by nearly 20 percent, and 17,000 jobs have been created throughout the state. In this plan, we fund this program through the completion of construction, with a focus on five major bridges throughout the Commonwealth.

Governor Patrick’s capital investments have been ambitious and fiscally responsible. Through the state’s first-ever Debt Affordability Policy, we have undertaken new borrowing in a manner that has allowed us to both increase our level of investment while improving the state’s credit.  Massachusetts’ bond ratings are currently Aa1/AA+/AA+ by Moody’s, Standard & Poor’s, and Fitch, respectively – the highest ratings in the Commonwealth’s history. 

We have pursued this strategy of investing in public education, supporting our innovation sectors and strengthening our infrastructure because doing so creates growth, and growth creates opportunity.  Opportunity is what makes all our other civic ideals possible.  But opportunity is not inevitable; it does not just happen.  Each generation of Americans has had to strive and to sacrifice to make opportunity real, and making opportunity real requires action.  The investments described in this plan are actions we will take today to ensure opportunity for the people of Massachusetts.