STATE CAPITOL BRIEFS – MORNING EDITION – WEDNESDAY, DEC. 3, 2014
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE
STATE NOTES PLEDGE FUTURE HIGHWAY $$$ FOR CURRENT PROJECTS
Massachusetts Treasury officials this week are in the midst of capital financing efforts aimed at generating $430 million for transportation projects. Treasurer Steven Grossman’s office is overseeing the sale of $330 million in special obligation federal highway grant anticipation notes and $100 million in Commonwealth Transportation Fund bonds. The bonds, which mature in 2044, are earmarked for bridge repair projects. The notes, also tied to the so-called Accelerated Bridge Program, rely in part on anticipated federal highway reimbursements and are scheduled to mature each June from 2016 through 2027. According to state finance documents, the bridge program, authorized in 2008, has “created or sustained” 29,705 jobs statewide, ranging from 6,088 jobs in Middlesex County and 3,751 jobs in Suffolk County to 631 jobs in Barnstable County and 363 jobs in Franklin County. Two major planks in the state’s 2013 transportation financing law have been removed since its passage. Lawmakers quickly repealed a technology services tax and voters this year repealed the law indexing the gas tax to inflation. Remaining pieces of that law include a 3-cent increase in the state gas tax and increases in tobacco taxes. – Michael Norton/SHNS
STATE: SOME GLX SERVICE TO START IN LATE 2017
Service to the first three Green Line Extension stations is set to begin December 2017, with service starting farther down the line in the summer of 2020, according to a state briefing document giving to lawmakers on Tuesday. On Monday, the Federal Transit Administration said it plans to award a grant of nearly $1 billion for the $2.3 billion project to bring rail service through Somerville and out to Medford. The FTA envisions a project completion date of June 29, 2021. Work has begun on bridge repairs, and construction would begin next spring on a new Lechmere Station, a station at Washington Street in Somerville and a station in Union Square. Additional stations will be built at Gilman Square, Lowell Street, Ball Square and College Avenue, near Tufts University. State officials plan to use long-term capital funding to pay for their share of project costs, with debt service paid for out of a line item that totals $2.1 billion in the fiscal 2015 budget. According to the House Ways and Means Committee, Green Line debt service costs will be about $20 million in fiscal 2015, rising to $40 million in fiscal year 2017 and then fluctuating between $40 million and $42 million. – Andy Metzger/SHNS
CAMBRIDGE DRUG DEVELOPER CLOSES ON FINANCING ROUND
A Cambridge-based drug developer has closed on $48 million in new investments in its pursuit of a product aimed at preventing the recurrence of infections. Seres Health plans to use financing proceeds to move its product candidate, SER-109, into a new phase of clinical trials, the company announced Tuesday. “We are very pleased with the strong interest in this financing round from leading, public healthcare investors, as it further validates the potential of our microbiome therapeutics platform to produce lifesaving therapeutics,” Dr. Roger Pomerantz, president and CEO of Seres Health, said in a statement. “Expanding our investor base will enable the further strengthening of our pipeline and advancement of multiple programs to the clinic.” State officials are in the midst of a 10-year $1 billion effort to boost the life sciences industry in Massachusetts and are on track to appoint a new president of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center this month. – Michael Norton/SHNS
