(The Middle Sq.) – Gov. Charlie Baker and Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito urged Massachusetts legislators to behave swiftly on their $3.5 billion financial improvement invoice.

Baker, Polito and different members of their administration went earlier than the Joint Committee on Financial Growth and Rising Applied sciences on Might 9 and mentioned the laws they filed final month.

The laws, which is encapsulated in Home Invoice 4720, proposes investments into all 351 of Massachusetts’ cities and cities. The invoice has been dubbed FORWARD, an acronym for Future Alternatives for Resiliency, Workforce and Revitalized Downtowns.

The lion’s share of the funding – $2.3 billion – can be sourced from federal American Rescue Plan Act {dollars}; the remaining $1.2 billion can be coated by way of capital bond authorizations.

As he combed by way of the numerous infrastructure tasks, downtown revitalization efforts, clear vitality investments and housing initiatives, Baker identified large-scale challenges – together with provide chain delays – and requested legislators to promptly think about the invoice.

“We have to reap the benefits of the federal assets now, earlier than the clock runs out,” Baker mentioned, pointing to the 2024 deadline for appropriating ARPA funds. “We consider we have to act now. No matter COVID, a number of these tasks take time.”

Baker described FORWARD as a method to maneuver Massachusetts in a post-pandemic surroundings. He mentioned the present realities are included within the plan.

“The availability chain challenges are actual, the labor challenges are actual, inflation is actual,” Baker mentioned. “(FORWARD) has the power to have a transformative impact on each space of the commonwealth.”

Polito, in her testimony, supplied comparable sentiments as she reviewed the varied elements in play.

“There’s this distinctive alternative to place all of those assets to work,” she mentioned. “Now we have a pipeline of tasks that these counties have prioritized.”

Throughout a question-and-answer session, Baker delved deeper into the housing element of the invoice, which might allocate $270 million towards incentivizing the trouble throughout the state by way of inexpensive rental housing manufacturing and rehabilitation, public housing, local weather resilient enhancements and comparable efforts.

“We’re so under-housed, relative to the place we had been 30 or 40 years in the past,” Baker mentioned. “This one, for us, is an existential disaster.”

After listening to from Baker, Polito and different members of their administration for an hour, the Joint Committee on Financial Growth and Rising Applied sciences launched right into a prolonged public testimony interval that spanned almost 5 hours.

Committee members heard from dozens of mayors and municipal directors and issue-specific advocates. Lots of the audio system spoke favorably of FORWARD.

Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno mentioned HB 4720 would assist town transfer ahead with its improvement plans for the years forward.

“Time is of the essence. Mayors not solely should act for in the present day, however plan for tomorrow,” Sarno mentioned. “Predictability is extraordinarily necessary, so far as shifting improvement ahead.”

A number of of the audio system did share reservations of a few of the particular proposals within the Baker-Polito invoice.

Meg Mainzer-Cohen, president and government director of the Boston-based Again Bay Affiliation, took goal at a proposal to promote the Hynes Conference Middle and applicable the sale proceeds to inexpensive housing.

“This isn’t our first time on the ‘promote the Hynes’ rodeo,” Mainzer-Cohen mentioned. “Individuals come to the Again Bay as a result of it’s such a well-liked vacation spot. I encourage all of you to sluggish this practice down. The Hynes has been a necessary participant in our neighborhood. At this level, we’re asking for additional evaluate of this.”