Patrick’s new economic bill: NonCompetes, H-1BVisa and Liquor Licenses

Governor Deval Patrick is shaking things up with the economic bill he shared last week that aims to make doing business in Massachusetts easier.

The big headlines include his desire to eliminate noncompetes and creating a “global Entrepreneur in Residence” program to allow foreign students to work at Massachusetts start ups as a way to work around the restrictions associated with H-1B visa program.

However, I was more excited to read that Deval Patrick’s plan also give cities and towns greater control over the number liquor licenses in their communities by ending existing statutory limits.  This is long overdue and I hope it is successful. Now we just need the MA Sate legislature to pass these initiatives so Patrick may sign them into law.