Patrick proposes ‘historic’ $2B higher-ed bond

BOSTON – Gov. Deval L. Patrick today is filing a 10-year, $2 billion higher-education bond measure with the Mass. Legislature that he described as “an historic capital investment in the commonwealth’s public colleges and universities.”
The measure includes money for building or renovation projects at every community and state college in the Bay State, and every campus in the University of Massachusetts system, and reserves a portion of the budget for emergency needs “and new capital investment priorities that will emerge over the next 10 years,” the governor’s office said.
UMass-Dartmouth would get $57.1 million of the $1 billion allocated to the UMass system, for library and basic infrastructure repairs, classroom upgrades, retrofitting of vacated spaces and air conditioning improvements.
Bristol Community College would receive $44 million to modernize BCC Science Building “E” and Siegel Health Technologies Building “C.”
The projects targeted are those identified as top capital-improvement priorities by the Mass. Board of Education, the capital facilities agency, the UMass board of trustees and the respective campuses.
“If we ask our students to put forth their best effort to succeed, then we must be willing to invest in the tools to help them: their laboratories, their classrooms and their libraries,” Patrick said last night in announcing the bond legislation.
The last major higher-education bond in Massachusetts was a 10-year, $618 million bond measure enacted in 1995, the governor’s office said.
The measure was applauded by Patricia F. Plummer, chancellor of the Board of Higher Education, who said: “We are particularly pleased to see that every single college and campus within the commonwealth’s public higher education system will benefit.”
“This bond bill is the direct result of good faith collaboration across a broad spectrum of stakeholders, including the Governor’s office, the Board of Higher Education, the Division of Capital Asset Management and all of the campuses,” added Frederick W. Clark, the board’s chairman. “The governor’s priorities as reflected in this bill mirror the ones identified throughout the collaborative process.”