Candidates for Governor Highlight MACDC Convention
Yes. Yes. Yes.
That’s how four candidates for Governor answered three of the four questions MACDC asked them in front of more than 600 community development leaders and residents from across the state who had crowded into a ballroom at the Westin Hotel in Boston on Saturday, October 25 for MACDC’s 2014 Convention. The answers came as part of our Gubernatorial Forum which was attended by Martha Coakley (Democrat), Charlie Baker (Republican), Evan Falchuck (United Independent Party) and Jeff McCormick (Independent candidate). All four of these candidates agreed, if elected, to
- Provide at least $2 million in their budget for the Small Business Technical Assistance Program
- Fully implement and support the Community Investment Tax Credit
- Meet with MACDC after the election to discuss how to achieve shared goals
MACDC also asked the candidates to increase the state’s capital budget for affordable housing by $32 million in 2016. While none of the candidates made a firm commitment to this dollar amount, all of them expressed strong support for investing in affordable housing and targeting more resources toward homeownership development. You can watch video of each candidate’s remarks.
The Gubernatorial Forum was just one aspect of the day-long Convention, which also included opportunities for learning, networking and celebrating. The Convention included eight different workshops on a range of topics, the release of MACDC’s 2015 Policy Agenda and the presentation of Awards to outstanding leaders in the public, private and CDC sectors. Aaron Gornstein, Undersecretary for Housing and Community Development received the Excellence in Community Service award and then spoke about the great work that local CDCs are doing in their communities every day. And Boston Mayor Marty Walsh spoke about his plans to work with CDCs to implement his agenda for housing and economic development in the City.
The event was also a great opportunity to roll our a new Social Media campaign using the hashtag #cdcswork. You can see a review of all the social media activity by looking on our Storify page.
The Convention was made possible by generous support from Bank of America, Citi Foundation, MHIC, the United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley, and dozens of other sponsors (Complete list of sponsors). MACDC is grateful to all the sponsors as well as the volunteers, speakers and participants who made the 2014 Convention a major success. We are already excited about the next convention – in 2018!