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Baker wants to give you $4,000 to help fill that open job

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Baker wants to give you $4,000 to help fill that open job

Still struggling to fill open positions?
 
Gov. Charlie Baker wants to give you $4,000 to offer that job to a candidate who doesn't quite have the skills, degree or experience you're looking for.
 
Then he hopes you'll spend that money training your new hire to get them up to speed.
 
And you can potentially do that for up to 100 new workers.
 
That’s the basic idea behind HireNow, a new $50 million state program announced yesterday. (Globe story here.)
 
The governor compared the idea to a “kick-starter fund” designed to “give employers an opportunity to go outside their traditional circles to find people who they might not normally bring in the door.”
 
Baker hopes the program will help fill open positions in the professional and management sectors, including in life sciences, healthcare, offices and manufacturing.
?
It's open to all Massachusetts employers, including both for-profit and nonprofit entities (excluding federal, state, and municipal governments) on a first-come, first-served basis.
 
The ARPA funded effort is intended to be used for training, hiring bonuses, or both. However, employers will not be required to document their training methods or specific expenses, notes Bruce Mohl at CommonWealth.
 
Hires must be made after March 23, retained for at least 60 days, given at least 30 hours of work per week, and paid between $14.25 per hour and $42.50 per hour (about $85,000 annually) for an employer to qualify for a per-employee grant.
 
Grants will be capped at $400,000 in total, enough for up to 100 new hires per employer.
 
?The state is already accepting online applications from employers and, like I said, are first-come, first-served.  
 
More about HireNow here.
 
(I’m interested in knowing if you think this program will be helpful to your business or nonprofit. Email me. I’ll keep your input confidential.) 
 
 
Small business grants also available
 
A reminder that the April 4 deadline is quickly approaching for two other state small business grant programs.
 
  • $25M for the New Applicant Grant Program, a program for small businesses that did not qualify for the prior round of MGCC grants due to a lack of documented revenue loss.
  • $50M for the Inclusive Grant Program, a program for businesses that reach underserved markets and historically underrepresented groups, or are minority-, women-, or veteran-owned businesses, or are owned by individuals with disabilities, or who identify as a member of the LGBTQ+ community.
 
Some of your employees may be getting a bonus next week
 
Remember that state program that was originally designed to provide a cash bonus to essential workers who were there for the rest of us during the pandemic’s darkest days?
 
The program was broadened in scope because the state didn’t have the data on which workers did what.
 
But $500 checks will be going out next week to roughly half a million people as a first round in the bonus program, according to Matt Murphy at State House News.
 
The program is aimed at those who earned at least $12,750 in 2020, which is the equivalent of 20 hours a week for 50 weeks at minimum wage, and whose income was less than 300 percent of the federal poverty level (based on their 2020 tax returns).
 
Anyone who received unemployment benefits in 2020 is ineligible, as are state executive branch employees who are eligible for a bonus from a different pot of money. The first round of checks will exhaust about $250 million from the bonus-pay pool, with a second round of checks being planned for after tax-filing season based on 2021 returns.
 
Ever dreamed of owning a toy store?
 
After 30 years in Newton Centre, Learning Express Newton owners Rich and Susan Gibson are retiring — but are seeking new owners to take over and keep the franchise toy store in operation.
 
Other Need to Knows
 
  • The Shorenstein Center will present a webinar today (Thursday) at noon “Reinventing Sustainable Business and Revenue Models for Journalism” looking at the innovative approaches from venture philanthropy to social impact investments used to build a sustainable future for journalism. Register.
 
  • Watertown’s winter overnight parking ban ended yesterday.
 
  • The Newton Historical Commission will consider a request tonight (March 24) to designate the Newton Senior Center building in Newtonville as a local landmark. The move could overturn years of meetings to build a much-needed new senior center at the site, setting back the project for years and increasing the project’s costs. (Globe story here.)
 
  • Wellesley-based nonprofit Art in Giving has raised more than $2 million for basic childhood cancer research through the sale of fine arts. (BBJ)
 
 
Newton, Watertown, looking at BERDO-type programs
 
The BBJ’s Greg Ryan reports on that proposal introduced to the Newton City Council Monday to require as many as 400 large buildings in the city to cut greenhouse-gas emissions to net zero by 2050.
 
Watertown could develop a similar program as recommended in its climate action plan, currently in draft form.
 
Both programs may be modeled on Boston’s Building Energy Reduction and Disclosure Ordinance, better known as BERDO. Under that law, property owners will one day face fines if they do not meet emissions targets.
 
But as Ryan wrote last month, Boston’s BERDO has struggled with reporting discrepancies and other tracking problems.
 
?And that’s something our local leaders in both Newton and Watertown need to take into account while considering adopting similar ordinances here.
 
Price at the pump and the price of potato salad
 
Soaring gas prices have lead Maryland and Georgia suspended their state gas tax. New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu want to do the same thing.
 
And Massachusetts Republican state senators will force a vote on a temporary gas tax suspension today, reports Shira Schoenberg at CommonWealth.
 
The measure isn’t expected to pass, just as a similar bill failed recently at the House.
 
Adjusted for inflation gas prices mirror rates not seen since the 1980s. But the price at the pump is arguably not as bad as it was when Jimmy Carter was president because vehicles have become more fuel efficient, notes the Wall Street Journal.
 
On the other hand, our housing shortage and sprawl has made many commutes longer. So, let's work on that lawmakers, okay?
 
Of course, the increased cost of a barrel of oil shows up in so many other products too, like for example, potato salad.
 
Looking for other ways to save at the pump? The Washington Post has some suggestions.
?
 
 
That’s Need to Knows for today -- World Cocktail Day (are you buying?) -- unless you still need to know how cryptocurrency works.
 
RIP Wellesley College alum Madeleine Albright.
 
Greg Reibman (he, him)
President
Charles River Regional Chamber
617.244.1688
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