MASSACHUSETTS HAS AWARDED more than $10 million in tax credits to housing developers in Salem and Quincy based on their status as Gateway Cities even though the two communities no longer met the criteria for that designation, according to funding records obtained by CommonWealth Beacon.

The state’s Housing Development Incentive Program, or HDIP, awards tax credits to market-rate housing developers in Massachusetts’s Gateway Cities — a designation that comes with state funding opportunities. Gateway Cities were defined in state law in 2010 as any city with a population greater than 35,000 but less than 250,000, a median household income below the statewide average, and a rate of educational attainment of a bachelor’s degree or higher that is below the state average.

While they originally met the three criteria, the percentage of residents in Salem and Quincy that have a bachelor’s degree or higher now exceeds the state average. Salem has not qualified for the status since 2020, and Quincy has not qualified since 2016, according to the US Census Bureau’s five-year American Community Survey.

As cities that no longer meet the state’s criteria receive millions in tax incentives and grants, two other cities — Weymouth and Marlborough — have met all three criteria to be considered Gateway Cities under state statute, according to ACS data, yet they continue to miss out on the benefits of the designation.

Beacon Hill hasn’t made changes to the list of qualifying cities since 2013.

Sen. Patrick O’Connor, who represents Weymouth, is pushing for the city to be added to the list.

Weymouth’s mayor, Michael Molisse, said gaining the designation would be a big plus. “In these fiscal times, any help would be great,” he said.

State Sen. Jamie Eldridge, who represents Marlborough, said he’s also lobbying for the state to open up the process so Marlborough can be included.

“There are current Gateway Cities that have become wealthier, and if the general idea is that a Gateway City is supposed to be prioritized because it’s either less well off or is unable to do the investments on its own, how does that impact the bigger discussion about how to most wisely use our taxpayer dollars?” Eldridge said.

More than $8 million in conditional HDIP awards were scheduled in 2024 and 2025 for four market-rate housing projects in Salem, although those developers won’t receive the final award until the development is completed. A $2 million HDIP award was conditionally awarded to a developer in Quincy in 2017. The final amount was paid out in 2019.

Gateway Cities are eligible and prioritized for multiple state aid programs, including the Gateway Housing Rehabilitation Program, which provides funds to develop blighted residential properties, and Greening the Gateway Cities, which provides grants to cities and nonprofits for tree planting.

Weymouth met all three Gateway Cities criteria in 2016, when its median household income briefly dipped below the state average before again going back above it. The city satisfied the income criteria again in 2022, and has qualified ever since. Marlborough has qualified since 2019.

Methuen, a Gateway City that no longer meets all three of the state’s criteria because its median household income has surpassed the state average, has not received an HDIP award, but, like Salem and Quincy, has received other state funding that is reserved specifically for Gateway Cities. Methuen did not qualify for Gateway City status between 2013 and 2016, and again has not met all three criteria since 2023.

In 2016, the city was awarded a $1.65 million grant by Gov. Charlie Baker’s administration as part of the Gateway City Parks Program. And in 2025, a small business in Methuen was awarded a $375,000 tax credit from the Economic Development Incentive Program, which offers tax incentives to businesses that commit to investing in a project that will create new jobs. Gateway Cities are prioritized for larger awards, but projects in other areas of economic need are considered for the program.

Together, the five cities are examples of how frequently communities can toggle in and out of the designation based on the three criteria set in state law. The statute doesn’t charge an office, department, or agency with periodically reviewing which cities meet the criteria, leaving no path for cities to be added or removed. It also doesn’t explicitly state which entity is supposed to enforce the law.

Leaders on Beacon Hill remain unclear as to whether the Legislature or the Executive Office of Economic Development should be overseeing the designations. When asked, Gov. Maura Healey’s office offered no comment on whether her administration is working on adding or removing cities from the list. Since its adoption in 2010, the Legislature has not changed the criteria or updated the law for clarity.

Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll served for 17 years as the mayor of Salem, which technically no longer qualifies for the designation. House Speaker Ron Mariano’s district is made up of parts of both Quincy, a city that no longer qualifies, and Weymouth, a city that does.

In 2009, Rep. Antonio Cabral, a New Bedford Democrat who co-chairs the Gateway Cities Legislative Caucus, sponsored legislation that would have amended the definition by tasking the secretary of housing and economic development (which has since split into two separate offices) with determining which cities meet the criteria every year. It also would have required any designated municipality to remain a Gateway City for at least three consecutive years. But Cabral’s bill was never taken up by the Legislature.

Cabral told CommonWealth Beacon he is now opposed to adding new cities or removing existing ones from the Gateway Cities designation. Even if cities no longer meet all three criteria, he said, it is in the state’s interest to continue its investment in their revitalization, while making changes to add new communities would dilute the already limited pot of money available for the 26 cities.

Sen. John Cronin, a Fitchburg Democrat who co-chairs the Gateway Cities Legislative Caucus, said he favors adding cities like Weymouth and Marlborough to the current list.

“There are more conversations happening in the Legislature now between members than I have seen in the past about whether we should increase the size or relook at what makes a Gateway City,” he said.

Molisse, the Weymouth mayor, would welcome the Gateway Cities designation, but said the politics get tricky when trying to expand the number of communities vying for a limited pool of funding. “It’s very touchy how it all works,” he said.