How do we make Massachusetts more competitive?
It’s a question that’s often discussed by the leaders of the state’s biggest business groups. But it’s taken on some added urgency with the news last week that 33,000 more people moved out of Massachusetts to other states, than moved here from elsewhere in the US, in the 12 months that ended on July 1.
Massachusetts has suffered from net domestic outmigration for years. That’s not new. But that was a big uptick from the previous year.
“Affordability” seems to be the big watchword among the state’s business groups, and last week’s annual meeting of the Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association was no exception.
Speaking on a panel about competitiveness, Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation president Doug Howgate suggested more municipal zoning reform is needed, to spur more housing construction, and state leaders need to make the state’s generous unemployment insurance system more sustainable.
Brooke Thomson, chief executive of Associated Industries of Massachusetts, emphasized the need for establishing a new educational standard in the wake of voters’ rejection of passing MCAS tests as a graduation requirement.
Jim Rooney, chief executive of the Greater Boston Chamber, gave one example of how the state could become more business friendly, by peeling back the red tape and regulation imposed on housing construction.
The simplest advice for state leaders, though, may have come from JD Chesloff, president of the Massachusetts Business Roundtable: “We hear a lot from our members [asking], ‘Just don’t make it any worse.’”
This is an installment of our weekly Bold Types column about the movers and shakers on Boston’s business scene.
Jon Chesto can be reached at jon.chesto@globe.com. Follow him @jonchesto.
