BOSTON - Gov. Deval Patrick and legislative leaders rolled out plans Monday they hope will encourage job growth by easing pressure on businesses, but critics said the moves were too modest and too late.

Patrick's plan called for freezing unemployment insurance rates for businesses and dedicated up to $25 million for loans to small businesses looking to expand.

Patrick is also pushing $50 million in tax credits that would provide $2,500 to businesses with fewer than 30 workers for every new job they create, provided the job lasts more than a year. He hopes that will create up to 20,000 new jobs.

"We need to try everything that might work because people need jobs and that's got to be our No. 1 focus," Patrick told reporters outside of his office Monday.

But critics said the administration should have acted more aggressively earlier to encourage business and job growth. They also wondered if just pumping more money into businesses will be enough to create jobs.

Senate GOP leader Richard Tisei, who is running for lieutenant governor on a Republican ticket with gubernatorial candidate Charles Baker, called Patrick's plan as an "election year lifeline to try to save his own job."

"For the past three years, as the state was hemorrhaging jobs, Gov. Patrick not only failed to offer any type of economic development plan to stop the bleeding, but he also put up additional roadblocks for employers," the Wakefield Republican said.

Patrick's Secretary of Administration and Finance Jay Gonzalez said freezing the unemployment insurance rate would save businesses $390 million in the current fiscal year.

Without the freeze, business would have to pay on average more than $800 per worker into the fund. With the freeze, those costs will hold at about $690 per employee, he said.

The change will force the fund to borrow more from the federal government to cover the cost of providing insurance benefits to unemployed workers, but Gonzalez said the state was already going to have to borrow $600 million without the freeze. He said improving unemployment numbers should allow the fund to repay the money in the next year or two.

"That is consistent with what other states are doing," he said.

Patrick's plan is finding support on Beacon Hill, where fellow Democratic leaders in the House and Senate are pushing their own plans to streamline government and promote jobs.

Senate President Therese Murray said she backed parts of Patrick's plan, including his proposal to offer tax credits for new jobs.

"It's something that certainly would be, I think, effective," Murray said. "You'd be holding onto some of those jobs you would normally see go away."

Murray said the Senate would likely approve the freeze on unemployment insurance rates on Thursday. The House approved the measure last week.

Murray is floating a plan that would consolidate some state agencies and eliminate others, including the Sports and Entertainment Commission and Department of Business Development. Eliminating the business department alone would save $371,000 a year, she said.

House Speaker Robert DeLeo has his own jobs package, including fully funding work force training programs, pushing ahead with legislation to allow expanded gaming or casinos, and linking the state's technical high schools and community colleges to the fastest growing industries including biotechnology and green technology.