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| Boston Business Journal - November 3, 2008 http://boston.bizjournals.com/boston/stories/2008/11/03/daily12.html |
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Lawmakers cut $30M from green, biotech and e-health programs
Boston Business Journal - by Craig M. Douglas
State lawmakers voted last week to slash $30 million from three investment funds targeting ambitious job and economic growth in the biotechnology, green-energy and health care sectors.
State Sen. Marc Pacheco, chairman of the Senate Committee on Global Warming and Climate Change, confirmed Monday that individual cuts to the investment funds were endorsed last week during a supplemental authorization vote at the Statehouse. A House Ways and Means official said each of the three investment funds targeted — the Massachusetts Alternative and Clean Energy Investment Trust Fund, the E-health Trust Fund and the Life Sciences Investment Fund — will each have $10 million pared from their budgets.
The Massachusetts Alternative and Clean Energy Investment Trust Fund, which was part of the state's Green Jobs Act passed in August, will see its balance sheet cut from $43 million to $33 million. The investment vehicle was created to help promote the state's clean-energy sector while also lowering its greenhouse-gas emissions.
The fund was launched with $43 million from the fiscal 2007 surplus. The fund will also receive another $25 million previously budgeted for the Renewable Energy Trust, a division of the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative.
Pacheco said the state still has significant investment funds at its disposal, adding that last week's cuts are not a sign of a retreat from the commonwealth's fastest-growing sectors.
"We really deauthorized some funds," Pacheco said. "Given the fact that most of the funds authorized ... We were not going to be able to get most of that money out the door by the end of this fiscal period anyway."
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