State House News Service
BOSTON — Treasurer Steven Grossman, a Democratic candidate for governor, described his vision for a system of “trickle-up economics” that included promises, if he is elected governor, to launch a universal pre-kindergarten program in Massachusetts and put high-speed Internet connections in every classroom.
Grossman delivered a campaign speech Thursday morning at the Boston Harbor Hotel to business leaders from the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, challenging them to partner with him to achieve his goals, which include raising the minimum wage and guaranteeing all employees the benefit of earned sick time.
The Newton Democrat, who is one of five running for the party’s nomination for governor this year, also set a goal of creating 5,000 new summer internships a year for students and 75,000 to 100,000 new jobs a year, including 50,000 new manufacturing jobs.
“We must be one Commonwealth. One Commonwealth where we invest in the future, where we must build an economy in which everyone prospers, in every region of the state,” Grossman said.
Many of the proposalS Grossman put forward on Thursday have already become staples of his gubernatorial campaign as he repeated his pitch to eliminate the inequality across Massachusetts that he said has led to disparities in income and opportunity.
Though the treasurer insisted he would not rule out raising taxes, he put the option fourth on his list for how to pay for the massive new investments he proposed, which included economic growth, savings from steps like publicly bidding more state contracts and partnering with the private sector to share the financial costs.
“I have never and won’t take revenue off the table. I think it’s something we absolutely have to consider as one of the tools of public policy,” Grossman said, adding, “We’re not overly taxed here.”
Noting that Massachusetts added 55,000 jobs last year in a recovering economy, Grossman said the goal for job creation “is not a pie in the sky notion if the national and global economies cooperate.”
After one term as treasurer, Grossman is running to succeed Gov. Deval Patrick. His opponents for the Democratic nomination include Attorney General Martha Coakley, Donald Berwick, Juliette Kayyem and Joe Avellone.
“I will launch a universal pre-K program that will be available to every child in the state,” he said.
For his internship program, Grossman said the state should commit to covering half the cost of the summer jobs, or roughly $12.5 million.
“Today, I have a challenge for the business community. Work with me. Invest in a progressive, forward-looking agenda for unparalleled economic growth. We must invest in the future together,” Grossman said.
After the House approved a bill Wednesday night to raise the minimum wage to $10.50 per hour, Grossman said he preferred the Senate’s version that would go to $11 an hour over three years and index future increase to inflation. Though he predicted compromise on the minimum wage and unemployment legislation this session, Grossman said it was more likely the effort to extend earned sick time to all employees would have to wait until the November elections when supporters are pushing to place a question on ballot.
Massachusetts has already struck a deal with Amazon to begin collecting sales taxes on Internet sales, but Grossman expressed relative confidence in Congress passing legislation “sometime soon” that would allow the state to collect taxes on all online sales, which he said would be worth an estimated $250 million to the state.
Grossman suggested he would like to use the hypothetical Internet sales revenues to invest in transportation infrastructure that was not paid for by the Legislature’s financing package approved last year, even though Grossman never fully endorsed Patrick grander tax plan. After Patrick proposed a major tax overhaul worth $1.9 billion, the Legislature approved a scaled down package of new revenues that Grossman said would get the state “half the way there.”
With one slot machine venue license already awarded and decisions looming for the Gaming Commission on casinos in eastern and western Massachusetts, Grossman said the $300 million in anticipated casino revenues could pay for universal pre-kindergarten “overnight” or be split up to also help freeze tuition at the University of Massachusetts and other public colleges for the next four years.
Though mostly a campaign speech, Grossman did manage to plug the Treasury’s abandoned property program, urging all breakfast guest to visit findmassmoney.com to see if they had unclaimed property.