Hopkinton ranks at top of tech-friendly communities
Hopkinton is the most technology-friendly community in Massachusetts, while Auburn is the least welcoming to high-tech businesses, according to a ranking of state cities and towns set to be released today by the Massachusetts High Technology Council.
The rankings, to be posted on the new MassTrack.org website developed over the past year with the involvement of technology CEOs, rates each municipality on a range of measures from tax policy to educated workforce to openness to growth and development.
''This is what technology executives consider when they're trying to recruit an employee or find a site location," said Christopher R. Anderson, president of the Waltham-based high technology council. ''We know we compete in a global economy, but competition begins at the local level. And we're trying to begin a dialogue at the local level."
Anderson said the council's ranking of cities and towns will be followed this summer by a ranking of elected state officials based on their votes on issues considered priorities by the high-tech industry.
The two communities topping the municipal ranking, Hopkinton and Franklin, both are home to operations of data storage giant EMC Corp., the largest technology company in Massachusetts, and to large number of EMC employees. Theodore D. Kozak, Hopkinton's executive secretary, said EMC helped put his town on the map.
''We're honored," Kozak said of the MassTrack ranking. ''This is a town that's been very supportive of business. We've been fortunate to have EMC helping to fund some of the technology programs in the schools. Technology has been a high priority of our school system."
Some of the state's biggest cities finished farther down the MassTrack list. Boston ranked 24th, Worcester 168th, and Springfield 211th. Cambridge, home to one of the nation's largest clusters of high-tech and biotechnology companies, ranked 36th on the list.
Anderson said the ratings of some communities suffered because of such factors as smaller numbers of housing starts or lower MCAS scores. But he acknowledged the council was unable to measure other factors like cellphone coverage or high-speed Internet access.
Some smaller towns, like seventh-ranked Lakeville, benefited from favorable tax policies and developable space for growth. Others, like Auburn, which ranked last of the 351 municipalities, were hurt by a smaller percentage of college-educated residents and policies that tax commercial property at higher rates than residential property.
''To improve its ranking, a community could have a single tax rate, increase its MCAS scores, build more houses, and have a permitting policy that accommodates growth," Anderson said.
Auburn town administrator Charles T. O'Connor said he was surprised by the town's low ranking but hoped to use it as a spur to improve its economic development efforts as high-tech businesses move west from Route 128 along the Massachusetts Turnpike.
''This couldn't be more timely," O'Connor said. ''We established an economic development committee in the past few months. And we're very interested in trying to attract high-tech businesses."
In a separate study published yesterday by Sperling's BestPlaces, a Portland, Ore., research firm, and sponsored by the semiconductor company Intel Corp., Boston ranked second, behind Washington, D.C., on a list of the best cities for ''teleworking" -- working remotely from home or elsewhere -- in the United States. Ranking behind Boston on the list were Atlanta, Chicago, and San Francisco.
Robert Weisman can be reached at weisman@globe.com. 
