Source: State House News Service
Author: Chris Lisinski

The first checks and direct deposits from a nearly $3 billion pot of excess tax revenue will head back to taxpayers starting on Tuesday when the calendar flips to November, the Baker administration announced Friday.

A spokesperson for the Executive Office of Administration and Finance said money will head out the door under the voter-approved tax cap law known as Chapter 62F, which taxpayers triggered for the first time since 1987 by delivering massive amounts of taxes.

About 3 million taxpayers will receive a refund in the form of a mailed check or a direct deposit worth about 14 percent of what they owed in state personal income tax in 2021, the spokesperson said. The administration plans to distribute the refunds on a rolling basis through Dec. 15. The administration had previously estimated refunds of about 13 percent of income tax liabilities.

Taxpayers who owed state personal income tax last year and already filed their 2021 return are eligible and do not need to take any additional steps to receive their refunds.

The administration published a frequently asked questions page online with a calculator that taxpayers can use to estimate their forthcoming refunds.

The Baker administration previously said taxpayers needed to file a 2021 tax return by Oct. 17, 2022 to be eligible for a 62F refund, but a spokesperson said Friday the administration pushed that deadline until Sept. 15, 2023 — which is the latest date possible to file a 2021 tax return when accounting for extensions — to accommodate taxpayers who might not have been aware of the original deadline.

 

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Chamber of Commerce | North Central Massachusetts | North Central Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce | Community Development | Economic Development | Legislative Issues | Government Affairs | Elected Officials

In recognition of National Manufacturing Month, the North Central Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce and its economic development arm, the North Central Massachusetts Development Corporation, recently partnered with regional organizations to host a unique manufacturing bus tour as part of the Chamber’s Education Compact Initiative. The initiative is aimed to further partnerships between the region’s K-12 schools, higher education institutions, and the region’s employers to collectively work to advance the region’s workforce.

The tour, which was held on Wednesday, October 19, provided education, civic and community leaders, economic development officials and the media, an opportunity to learn more about—and the importance of—manufacturing in the region as a way to promote careers in the industry. The regional organizations involved included the MassHire North Central Massachusetts Workforce Investment Board and Mount Wachusett Community College.

Participants visited several manufacturing companies where they obtained an insider’s look at how select manufacturers operate, and also learned about the growing job opportunities in manufacturing and the necessary skill-sets for employment.

Tour stops included Solvus Global, an advanced manufacturer located in Leominster that specializes in the areas of additive manufacturing, machine learning, and sustainable materials processing; Burkart Flutes and Piccolos, a company founded in 1982 that specializes in the precision manufacturing of high quality flutes and piccolos; Jabil, a worldwide contract manufacturer of various medical devices and medical equipment; and Mount Wachusett Community College’s Devens Manufacturing Center, which offers technical training in a number of different areas, including advanced manufacturing. The tour also included a lunch presentation and discussion with Branner Stewart, Project Manager for the UMass Donahue Institute. Mr. Stewart highlighted the findings of a recent workforce study commissioned by the Chamber.

North Central Massachusetts boasts the largest concentration of manufacturing in the state, with one-third of all private wages in the region paid from manufacturing jobs. Companies range from the world-class plastics industry cluster of more than 140 companies to pharmaceuticals, photonics and paper as well as biomedical devices

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“The North Central Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce and the North Central Massachusetts Development Corporation remain committed to supporting and growing this critical sector of the region’s economy while also building successful partnerships between businesses and the region’s schools which are critical to the collective, ongoing efforts of keeping manufacturing alive and well in the region,” said Roy Nascimento, President and CEO, North Central Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce. “Manufacturers are some of the most well-paid, highly trained and in demand employees in the workforce, yet despite competitive wages and training, they are still challenged with recruiting the workers they need. We hope this tour provided our local educators, civic and community leaders, and the media, an opportunity to learn more about the jobs available in the region as the need for more young workers and a skills gap exists among the existing and transitioning workforce.”

“Manufacturing continues to be a priority industry in North Central Massachusetts,” said Jeffrey Roberge, Executive Director, MassHire North Central Workforce Board. “Many thanks to the North Central Chamber for hosting this important event as it brings together our legislators, educators and employers to learn more about this vital sector.”

“This tour proves how the North Central Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce commits itself to advanced manufacturing in the region,” said James L. Vander Hooven, Ed.D., President, Mount Wachusett Community College. “Mount Wachusett Community College remains dedicated to providing educational training opportunities to meet the growing needs of local business and industry.”

The North Central Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce wishes to thank and acknowledge the support and assistance of the following partners who helped make the event possible: MassHire North Central Workforce Board; Solvus Global; Burkart Flutes and Piccolos; Jabil; and Mount Wachusett Community College.

For more information on the manufacturing bus tour or the North Central Massachusetts Education Compact Initiative, please contact the North Central Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce at 978.353.7600.

For more than a century, North Central Massachusetts has served as the center of this state’s traditional, legacy manufacturing, making manufacturing one of the most important economic drivers in the region’s niche employment cluster. From the history of Foster Grant, L.S. Starrett and Simonds Industries to Bristol-Myers Squibb, Solvus Global and Wonder Plunger, North Central Massachusetts has served as a crossroads where companies work hard to recruit and retain local workers, a place with a strong local job market and an affordable lifestyle close by New England’s largest cities.

“I’ve lived in the region for close to twenty years, and it was the area’s manufacturing environment that drew me to open my business here,” said Lillian Burkart, Founder, Burkart Flutes and Piccolos, a Shirley-based manufacturer of high-end flutes and piccolos. “This area brings tremendous opportunity in terms of jobs because it is an affordable area to raise a family with many amenities but is still close to the region’s largest cities.”

Burkart Flutes and Piccolos opened for business in 1982 in Stoneham but after being priced out of that market, found themselves in Acton. In 2006, after doing some research on how to make her business more affordable, Burkart made the decision to move to Phoenix Park in Shirley. Close to the intersection of Routes 495 and 2, Shirley offered lower overhead costs. “There’s no better place to be in the state,” Burkart added. “Several of us are manufacturers in this area and it’s truly a hub of innovation and activity.”

As a relatively new manufacturing company, Solvus Global opened for business in 2017 with two employees and zero square footage of manufacturing space. Today, the company boasts 54 employees and 48,000 square feet of manufacturing space serving the aerospace, defense, and recycling industries. As post-doctorate graduates from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, co-founders Sean Kelly and Aaron Birt were drawn to the startup community Worcester offers but decided to expand their business to Leominster. “We needed a secondary campus and in Leominster we get this strong manufacturing-bound city that also has a small-town culture and a range of community offerings,” noted Kelly. “By renovating an existing plastics factory warehouse, we were reminded of where manufacturing got its start in central Massachusetts, and we hope to provide it with a flavor of where it is headed in the future.”

As a UL-listed control panel shop, Applewood Controls, Inc., needed a new space to grow, preferably one with a ground-level entrance and loading dock. Applewood President Randy Furmanick found that magic combination in Ayer in 2019. “We needed to stay in the region so our employees could remain close to home, but we also needed to find the right spot for us,” said Furmanick. “After purchasing the building, we did an extensive remodel and added square footage. But in the middle of the remodel, we were hit with the pandemic. It did cause some delays, but Ayer has been a great fit and we are currently in a growth pattern and hiring.”

With 11 employees currently working at Applewood, Furmanick said the decision to invest in North Central Massachusetts was an easy decision since the region is home to a wide range of technology and biotech companies. “This region has a high level of technical manufacturing, and our central location allows employees to reverse their commute, going from the cities into our region for the jobs, rather than the other way around.”

With local cities and towns across the region revitalizing and rejuvenating their centers with restaurants, activities, rail trails, and other community-focused amenities, it is becoming an increasingly tempting proposition for city-dwellers to not just visit the area, but to stay and live here. “These are all of the things people tend to gravitate to locally, so it’s not just about more affordable housing, but about the communities who support that housing,” Furmanick explained. “That mindset and outreach is just as big a factor for people who want to stay and raise a family here.” Kelly at Solvus Global agrees. “In every step of Solvus’ growth journey, the surrounding community as grown right along with us,” he said. “We make it our mission to attract, support, and retain these talented people living in our region.”

Manufacturing firms employed more than 14,200 workers in North Central Massachusetts in 2019. That’s about 15 percent of the region’s total employment. Contrary to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, which experienced a two percent decline in manufacturing jobs between 2014 and 2019, manufacturing employment in North Central Massachusetts actually grew by three percent, or

more than 440 jobs during that same period. In the region, chemical manufacturing is the fastest growing subsector, employing nearly 1,700 workers, with plastics and rubber products representing the largest manufacturing subsector with more than 2,400 local jobs.

For Solvus Global, building the right team is incredibly important, and Kelly said the right fit is well worth the company’s time and effort. “There is no better feeling than watching a company you truly believe in grow as Solvus has in the last few years. Every team member we have brought on brings incredible talent, dedication, and drive.”

Autumn Minery, Manager, Human Resources, Solvus Global agrees noting “with the addition of diverse backgrounds, skillsets, and personalities, you can feel the culture at Solvus evolving just as we hoped it would; our people have definitely fueled our company to date and will continue to do so as we look to the future.” The company, which has 15 career opportunities currently posted, found recruiting success by diversifying benefits packages and sourcing applicants from a variety of platforms, including the North Central Massachusetts Chamber’s jobs board.

Burkart Flutes and Piccolos said their recruiting success benefitted from a creative recruiting and retention approach, especially given the intricacies of manufacturing world-class musical instruments. What started as a business of one person has expanded to 22 employees today, with all instruments made of precious metals of solid silver, platinum and gold by an experienced and diverse group of employees (some of whom are musicians themselves) who love to work with their hands. “We have a talented team, and more than half of our staff is female,” said Burkart.

Though based in North Central Massachusetts, the company sells more than 50 percent of its instruments domestically with the rest going to musicians in every corner of the world. They serve a wide range of customers from symphony orchestras and training centers to aspiring musicians and amateurs. “A working musician needs a tool, but an amateur may be playing just for the enjoyment of making music,” she said. “Our instruments are definitely an investment tool for professional musicians, but we can also offer something at an intermediate level to make our products more accessible to less experienced musicians.”

But it’s not just about the customer. Burkart recently took employee engagement to the next level and offered shares of the company to her employees. “With this opportunity, I just welcomed 22 new business owners to the local economy,” she added. “I want to provide not just a job, but a long-term future to keep people and their families thriving in this area.”

One of the more pressing challenges for the region’s manufacturing employers is attracting and retaining younger workers who are interested in the region’s most concentrated areas of employment in health care, advanced manufacturing, and government and public services industries. While these sectors represent strong and stable industries, job opportunities in health care and manufacturing offer a wide array of pay grades that require both highly skilled, intermediate and entry-level workers. At the same time, the region’s industrial sector has experienced an increase in higher-paying, higher-tech firms within chemical manufacturing, electronic product manufacturing, research & development, and computer systems design, among others.

“Manufacturing used to be standing in front of a machine with not a lot of thought process. Today, there is so much more to manufacturing, such as robotics, and we need to start educating parents about the opportunity for future generations to have successful careers in manufacturing so we can reverse the skills gap,” said Furmanick.

Applewood decided to work directly with local technical and vocational high schools to combat the skills gap. “We are licensed electricians, and we are seeing a shortage in the number of up-and-coming electricians who can work in both industrial and residential settings,” he said. “If we can get to the youth, we can hopefully excite them about the opportunities available to them for long-term, successful careers.”

Kelly said he is starting to see a shift toward advanced manufacturing, which resulted in the creation of a workforce training program to improve and support the manufacturing industry in the region. “We want to bring the region back to its industrial roots,” added Kelly. “We foresee the nucleus of additive manufacturing forming right here in New England. The truth is manufacturing overall is becoming increasingly important to local economies because it offers a lot of growth potential to the region’s workforce and that will cultivate a surge in job creation and economic turnaround.”

“The North Central Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce is putting manufacturing at the forefront of job creation in our region. I believe that by supporting trade schools and showing students that we have great manufacturing jobs with clean work environments as well as opportunities for advancement and training, we can actively recruit youth into manufacturing,” said Burkart. “Our biggest challenge is hiring, and we cannot pretend to compete with the Greater Boston area. We need to create our own pocket of success in the region, and companies here need to appreciate and understand that training and education are a key component to having a successful workforce.”

Solvus Global’s Kelly believes manufacturing, and particularly advanced manufacturing, is unique in that it cuts across a wide swath of academic, industrial and government entities. “Our success depends on our ability to bridge the innovation gap by the identifying critical manufacturing needs and successfully scaling key research concepts into commercially-sustainable solutions,” he said.

“As individuals and businesses, we need to look at how supply chain disruptions have impacted our daily lives, especially those long-term supply chain issues which have proved how dependent we are on off-shored products for our day-to-day lives,” added Burkart. “Our boats have been rocked in the last few years and we need to steady our sails with a stronger local supply chain in the years to come.”

Furmanick echoes Burkart and encourages all people to buy local and buy American-made products as much as possible to help rebuild the once thriving American supply chain and resolve the supply issues our country is experiencing. “When you purchase locally, you know where it is made, who made it, and where they are located,” said Furmanick. “There are shortages of everything right now and some of those issues are related to imported products. This will take time to recover, and I suspect we will experience a shift, but I hope it’s a positive shift for future generations.”

As the challenges of the supply chain, inflation and the skills gap put increasing pressure on our manufacturing businesses, it’s clear they are thinking outside of the box and looking to our communities to help them overcome these challenges, to show that this region is an effective crossroad where growth, opportunity and innovation thrive.