Grant programs available: New MassWorks Infrastructure Program

Lieutenant Governor Timothy Murray today announced the MassWorks Infrastructure Program – a newly created one-stop shop for municipalities seeking public infrastructure funding to support job growth and long term, sustainable economic development. The MassWorks Infrastructure Program represents an administrative consolidation of six grant programs:

• Public Works Economic Development (PWED)

• Community Development Action Grant (CDAG)

• Growth District Initiative (GDI) Grants

• Massachusetts Opportunity Relocation and Expansion Program (MORE)

• Small Town Rural Assistance Program (STRAP)

• Transit Oriented Development (TOD) Grant Program.

The consolidated program offers municipal applicants a streamlined process to access state economic development grant programs. The program will provide a single application, a single solicitation schedule, and a single set of grant rules and reporting requirements.

The program will improve accountability and provide for more effective management of state resources. The Executive Office of Housing & Economic Development will oversee the MassWorks Infrastructure Program with input from the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) and the Executive Office of Administration and Finance.

For more information, please visit www.mass.gov/eohed/infrastructure.

Below is an email that went out from the Lieutenant Governor and Secretary Bialecki to municipalities. Additionally, I have attached a program description and a FAQ. And here is the Lieutenant Governor’s press release: http://www.mass.gov/?pageID=gov3pressrelease&L=1&L0=Home&sid=Agov3&b=pressrelease&f=100916_massworks_infrastructure&csid=Agov3

Email from Lieutenant Governor Timothy Murray & Secretary Bialecki:

Dear Municipal Leaders,

On behalf of the Patrick-Murray Administration, we are pleased to share good news on the economic front. Our Commonwealth continues to rebound from the current economic downturn faster and stronger than the rest of the country. With seven straight months of job growth, Massachusetts has added nearly 65,000 new jobs since December 2009, including almost 45,000 private sector jobs this year.

The Commonwealth is also a great place to start and grow a business. In its 2010 edition of America’s Top States for Business, CNBC placed Massachusetts in the top five nationally for business competitiveness. Massachusetts also has an unparalleled entrepreneurial spirit, which is why for the second year in a row, Suffolk University’s Beacon Hill Institute ranked Massachusetts at the top in its annual Competitiveness Report.

While we welcome these accolades, we know there is more work to do and our administration continues to develop reforms that will secure the Commonwealth’s economic future. We are committed to working in partnership with municipalities toward recovery and long-term economic stability as we grow our Commonwealth in smart and effective ways.

Today, we are writing to tell you of a reform our administration has developed to streamline our delivery of state infrastructure grants to better serve you.

We have created the MassWorks Infrastructure Program, a one-stop shop for municipalities seeking public infrastructure funding to support economic development. The initiative represents an administrative consolidation of six grant programs used frequently by cities and towns:

• Public Works Economic Development (PWED)

• Community Development Action Grant (CDAG)

• Growth District Initiative (GDI) Grants

• Massachusetts Opportunity Relocation and Expansion Program (MORE)

• Small Town Rural Assistance Program (STRAP)

• Transit Oriented Development (TOD) Grant Program

Together, these programs have added jobs and supported business growth throughout the Commonwealth, by providing important public infrastructure grants for such improvements as sewers, roadways, curb-cuts, pedestrian walkways, and water treatment systems.

The grants as you know them will still exist; the burdens you experience in trying to access them will not. Now, municipalities will complete a single MassWorks Infrastructure Program application for consideration by all of the aforementioned programs, as well as a single funding round. There will be a single draw schedule, a single set of rules for reporting, and eventually, a single contract for each project.

You may be asking how this will impact your existing grant contract or your pending application for funds. We assure you that all existing contracts will continue to be managed in the same way as they had been prior to this consolidation. For instance, if you have an existing PWED contact, MassDOT will continue to honor the terms of that contract, and your existing project will not be impacted by the consolidation. Likewise, all pending applications will be honored. If you submitted a STRAP or PWED application during the recent summer solicitation, you can expect that your application is being reviewed and decisions will be rendered in a timely fashion. If you have a grant application pending with any of the six programs, you can expect to receive additional information in the next few weeks that will confirm the process going forward. We do not anticipate that pending applicants will be impacted from this consolidation.

The objective of this consolidation is to increase municipal access to these programs, reduce unnecessary burdens on municipalities, and to improve state government efficiencies. We have established a transition team representing all of these programs that will ensure that the consolidation is smooth and effective.

Please see the attached Frequently Asked Questions and visit www.mass.gov/eohed/infrastructure for more information on the MassWorks Infrastructure Program.

Our administration continues to focus on the very best ways to encourage strong and sustainable growth throughout our Commonwealth, and we look forward to our continued partnership with you.

Yours truly

Timothy P. Murray

Lieutenant Governor

Gregory Bialecki

Secretary of Housing and Economic Development