Saving Seafood

Massachusetts: Bill would deliver $100M tax credits to port businesses

May 3, 2018 — A bipartisan band of state legislators has filed a bill that could award up to $100 million a year in tax credits to businesses operating within the state’s 10 Designated Port Areas — including Gloucester, Salem and Lynn on the North Shore.

The bill, with state Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr and state Rep. Ann-Margaret Ferrante among the sponsors, would enable the state secretary of Housing and Economic Development to provide up to $100 million annually in targeted tax credits to retail and wholesale “water-dependent businesses” located and operating within DPAs.

Eligible industries include seafood processors, aquaculture, water-dependent science, seafood storage and entities immersed in marine research and innovation.

 “Commercial fishing and marine industries are among the oldest in our state and they continue to play an important role in our economy,” Tarr said in a statement announcing the filing of the bill. “There is no chance for our maritime industries to survive without state assistance for shoreside infrastructure.”

The bill must pass both houses of the Legislature and be signed into law by Gov. Charlie Baker, which could be a tall order in the state’s current budgetary climate.

Baker, as Deval Patrick before him, previously had the power to free up about $7 million from an environmental bond bill to address Gloucester’s crumbling shoreside infrastructure and assist at least 26 businesses in modernizing their facilities by renovating piers, floats and docks.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times