During the Massachusetts governorship of Charlie Baker (which extended from January 2015 through January 2023), his administration took various actions related to the state's economy and pursued a number of economic initiatives.
Community development In February 2016, Baker, along with Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, announced a redevelopment public–private partnership between the state and city governments with Veolia. In August 2016, Baker signed into law the municipal finance modernization bill he proposed the previous December. In May 2017, Baker's administration announced $6 million in tax credits to 48 community development corporations in the state to improve economic opportunities for low- and moderate-income households and communities.
In June 2017, Baker announced $1.8 million in grants from the state's Site Readiness Fund Program to increase the number of development-ready sites in the state for local development.
In October 2017, Baker's administration announced $343,000 in Collaborative Workspace Program grants to seven organizations in Western Massachusetts. In November 2017, Baker's administration announced the second round of grants from the state's Urban Agenda Grant Program.
Community Compact program At the start of his governorship, Baker launched the Community Compact Program run by the Community Compact Cabinet. The program saw the state providing funding to "best practice" programs in communities. At the end of Walsh's governorship, Sean Cronin (deputy commissioner of the Massachusetts Division of Local Services) claimed that his Community Compact Cabinet had distributed 1,400 grants amounting to $65 million.
In January 2015, Baker, in the first executive order of his administration, created Community Compact Cabinet chaired by Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor Karyn Polito to enable the governor's office to work more directly with municipal government leaders.
In January 2017, Baker's administration announced $8.8 million in Community Compact Cabinet grants in their state budget proposal for fiscal year 2018, and the following March, Baker's administration announced $850,000 in a second round of Community Compact Cabinet grants to 38 municipalities and eight school districts for efficiency and regionalization efforts.
In September 2017, Baker signed the state's 300th Community Compact agreement with the town of Swampscott,
In January 2018, Baker's administration announced $2 million in Community Compact Cabinet grants to 92 municipalities and eight school districts for efficiency and regionalization. In May 2018, Lieutenant Governor Polito signed the state's 350th and 351st Community Compact agreements with Wilbraham and Boston.
Community development block grants In July 2015, Baker announced $26 million in community development block grants to 65 municipalities for housing, infrastructure improvements, childcare vouchers, and other services. In January 2016, Baker announced the first award in the inaugural round of the state's Urban Agenda Grant Program in Roxbury, and the following day, Baker's administration announced the rest of the program's inaugural round of grants. In June 2016, Baker announced $28 million in community development block grants to 57 municipalities in the state to pursue economic development projects and support the needs of low- and moderate-income residents.
In July 2017, Baker announced $30.5 million in community development block grants to 58 municipalities in the state to respond to specific housing, community, and economic development projects that support low- and moderate-income residents.
Maritime economy and port infrastructure
In August 2015, Baker's administration announced the formation of the Seaport Economic Council to advise the administration in supporting the state's maritime economy. In September 2017, Baker, along with Massachusetts U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey, Massachusetts U.S. Representative Stephen F. Lynch, as well as officials from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the International Longshoremen's Association, the Massachusetts Port Authority, and other local elected officials, announced the beginning of a $350 million dredging project to expand Boston Harbor to accommodate larger ships.
Economic development In March 2015, as part of his budget proposal for fiscal year 2016, Baker proposed eliminating the state's film industry tax credit to pay for an expansion of the state's earned income tax credit, and later in the same month, Baker's administration announced that the state had approved a tax credits package to support an expansion project by Amazon.com into Fall River and Freetown. In July 2015, as part of a compromise for the 2016 fiscal year state budget, the state legislature eliminated a corporate tax deduction instead of eliminating the state's film industry tax credit to pay for the earned income tax credit increase.
In January 2016, Baker proposed a five-year, $918 million economic development bill that he would sign into law the following August.
In December 2016, Baker's administration undertook an economic development mission in Israel. During the mission, Baker signed an agreement with Israeli Chief Scientist Avi Hasson to foster research and development cooperation between the Massachusetts and Israeli governments, the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative and an Israeli non-profit organization signed a cybersecurity agreement, and Baker met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In December 2016, Baker's administration also announced $950,000 in grants to 23 organizations as part of the state's Collaborative Workspace Program. In May 2017, Baker's administration announced 10 pilot grants totaling $330,000 to eight business districts in the state to foster small business growth.
Also in February 2018, Baker welcomed an announcement by the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company that it was going to add 1,500 jobs to its Springfield headquarters and build a second $300 million location with 500 jobs in the Seaport District in South Boston. In March 2018, the Associated Industries of Massachusetts released its business confidence index showing that employer confidence in the state had hit a 17-year high, and Baker filed a $610 million economic development bill. In April 2018, Baker submitted a request to the U.S. Treasury Department that 138 census tracts in Massachusetts be designated as "opportunity zones" under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. The following month, the U.S. Treasury Department approved all 138 opportunity zone designations Baker requested the previous month, and the Bureau of Economic Analysis released data showing that the Massachusetts real GDP had increased 2.6% in 2017, the 11th-highest growth rate in the United States and the highest growth rate in the Northeastern or Midwestern United States.
In June 2018, addressing concerns about the effects of retaliatory tariffs imposed by the Canadian government in response to protectionist tariffs implemented by the Trump Administration, Baker stated "I've talked to plenty of employers and companies here in the commonwealth that are worried about the lack of clarity associated with that relationship at this point in time" and noted that Canada is New England's biggest trading partner. In August 2018, Baker returned a credit reporting bill to the state legislature with amendments. In December 2018, Baker's administration announced that Housing and Economic Development Secretary Jay Ash would be stepping down from the position and that he would be succeeded by his assistant secretary Mike Kennealy.
Unemployment and jobs reports
In January 2016, the Massachusetts Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development released jobs estimates showing that the state had gained 7,100 jobs during the previous month and that during 2015 the state had seen the highest levels of jobs growth since 2000. In December 2016, the state Labor and Workforce Development Office released jobs estimates showing that the state unemployment rate had fallen to 2.9%. In March 2017, the state Labor and Workforce Development Office released jobs estimates showing that while the state economy had added an additional 13,000 jobs the previous January, the state unemployment rate had increased from 3.1 to 3.2%. The following May, and following further jobs estimates from the state Labor and Workforce Development Office showing that the state unemployment had increased further to 3.6%, Baker attributed the increases to a "slow growth economy" but stated he "[does not] tend to make decisions about the long term based on a month or two's worth of data." In January 2018, the state Labor and Workforce Development Office released jobs estimates showing that the state unemployment rate was at 3.5%, In December 2018, the state's Labor and Workforce Development Office announced that the state unemployment rate had fallen to 3.4%, three-tenths of a point lower than the national unemployment rate.
Regulatory reform effort In March 2015, Baker signed an executive order initiating a comprehensive review of all regulations enforced by the state government. In December 2015, Baker filed legislation to modernize municipal finance in the state through a series of regulatory reforms. In his 2017 State of the Commonwealth Address the following January, Baker stated that the ongoing regulatory reform review he initiated by executive order in March 2015 had "reviewed, updated and eliminated thousands of pages of outdated and obsolete state regulations."
General Electric's relocation of its headquarters to Boston
In January 2016, General Electric announced that it was moving its corporate headquarters to the Seaport District in South Boston following $120 million in grants and other programs offered by Baker's administration and $25 million in municipal property tax relief offered by Boston Mayor Marty Walsh. Some critics argued that General Electric had received a "sweetheart deal".
For their work on securing General Electric's move to Boston, The Boston Globe jointly named Jay Ash, Baker aides Steve Kadish and Dan Koh, and Boston Chief of Economic Development John Barros as its 2016 "Bostonians of the Year", crediting them with having been behind the deal which brought General Electric's headquarters to the city, each having done so, "with marching orders from their bosses".
In April 2016, Baker credited expansion of Logan International Airport to include more international flights with General Electric's decision to move their corporate headquarters to Boston the previous January.
Pawtucket Red Sox move to Worcester In August 2017, Baker's Secretary of Housing and Economic Development Jay Ash reported that the state was in "active discussions" with the ownership of the Pawtucket Red Sox about moving the team to Worcester or Springfield. In January 2018, Baker's Housing and Economic Development Secretary stated that a potential move by the Pawtucket Red Sox to Massachusetts was "still very much in play," In August 2018, Boston Red Sox Chairman Tom Werner announced that the Pawtucket Red Sox would be moving to Worcester with the Worcester City Council approving a $100 million stadium financing package the following month.
Massachusetts's unsuccessful bid for Amazon HQ2 In September 2017 month, Baker announced that Massachusetts would bid for Amazon.com's second headquarters. In October 2017, Baker stated that offering Amazon only a single proposed location within Massachusetts for their second headquarters "would be a huge mistake" and that "I think the best thing we can do with respect to Amazon is to give them what I would describe as a menu of options," and Baker wrote an open letter of support for the Boston bid.