Baker and Polito stop in Fall River to promote $3.5 billion economic development bill

FALL RIVER — Gov. Charlie Baker and Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito visited the city on Monday promoting their $3.5 billion economic development bill, that if approved by the state Legislature, would mean a big windfall of federal dollars to Fall River.

“As filed, the package seizes on opportunities to make advancements in local and regional economies, clean energy, investments in environmental assets, as well as other projects and programs that have already been identified as priority by each city and town across the commonwealth,” said Baker from the floor of manufacturer Millstone Medical, located on Commerce Drive in the Fall River Industrial Park.

Baker's and Polito's visit to Fall River was the fourth such event in a series planned around the commonwealth to promote their spending package proposal.

The proposed spending bill includes nearly $9.5 million to the city.

The earmarks to Fall River include $5 million toward water and sewer projects for lead service line abatement; $2.4 million to replace the Wilson Road sewer pumping station; a $1.34 million downtown recovery grant; more than $600,000 for a downtown restoration study; and $75,000 towards revising the city’s site plan review ordinance.

Baker's bill is called FORWARD

The economic development bill filed in April is dubbed FORWARD, the acronym for Future Opportunities for Resiliency, Workforce and Revitalized Downtowns.

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If passed, $2.3 billion will come from federal American Rescue Plan Act dollars and the balance of $1.2 billion will be covered through capital bond authorizations.

“I just want to say, we believe just how much this work needs to get done and get done soon,” said Baker.

Polito called the FORWARD plan an “economic development bill on steroids.”

“So, it’s big, and it’s big on purpose because it's coming out of COVID. We need to recover. We need to think differently about what our downtowns look like, what opportunities we can take advantage of to expand industrial parks like this and create more jobs and opportunities like the ones here in this organization,” said Polito.

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'Urgency' to deploying funds

The lieutenant governor stressed that there was an “urgency to accelerate the pace of deploying these dollars with the support of the Legislature to get to work.”

If the projects for the federal dollars are not committed by 2024 and fully expended by 2026 the federal government “will claw them back.”

“And we won’t put those dollars to full use as we have outlined and designed in the FORWARD bill,” said Polito.

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Fall River mayor touts economic aid

Mayor Paul Coogan, who spoke at the event, said later that the economic aid to Fall River is important for the city.

“Obviously, we want to do something about the lead pipes. That would be a big asset to help our water and sewer ratepayers, and taking some of the burden from those bills and then the money for the downtown,” said Coogan. “So, they are all good things. We’ll see how it goes through the Legislature. Hopefully it's another blessing for Fall River.”

If the House and Senate pass the FORWARD bill, it will mean an additional $9.5 million to the nearly $86 million the city will receive in total from ARPA funding.

Jo C. Goode may be reached at jgoode@heraldnews.com. Support local journalism and subscribe to The Herald News today!

This article originally appeared on The Herald News: Baker and Polito visit Fall River to promote FORWARD $3.5 billion bill