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Boston Chamber
  • Events
        • Events

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          Women's Network
          2023 Pinnacle Awards

          The Pinnacle Awards is the premier event for women in business, and honors incredible leading women for their outstanding contributions to the workplace and commitment to enhancing the quality of life in the region.

          01/27/2023

          11:00am - 1:30pm

          Omni Boston Hotel at the Seaport

          arrow-go
          Read More
        • ...
          City Awake
          City Awake: BIPOC Young Professionals Coffee Networking

          Stay connected with Boston's entrepreneur, business, and innovation community! This event is hosted in partnership with Innovation Studio.

          02/13/2023

          8:30am - 10:30am

          Roxbury Innovation Center

          arrow-go
          Read More
        • ...
          City Awake
          Cook & Bake with City Awake

          Join City Awake for our first social experience event of 2023!

          02/27/2023

          4:45pm - 8:00pm

          Cambridge School of Culinary Arts

          arrow-go
          Read More
  • Learning & Development
        • Learning & Development

          • Overview
          • Call for Nominations
          • Resources
        • Boston’s Future Leaders

          Our Boston’s Future Leaders (BFL) program provides emerging leaders with a socially conscious and civically engaged leadership toolkit, as well as the opportunity to apply their knowledge through experiential assignments.

          Read More
          Transformational DEI Certificate

          Join our Transformational DEI Certificate! Our comprehensive learning & development offerings are designed to connect and grow strong leaders who lead both inside and out of the office.

          Read More
          Women’s Leadership Program

          Our Women’s Leadership Program enables you to take your leadership to the next level by arming you with the most in-demand leadership toolkit.

          Read More
  • Economic Inclusion
        • Economic Inclusion

          • Overview
          • Economic Inclusion Committee
          • Fierce Urgency of Now Festival
          • Pacesetters
          • Resources
        • ...
          Economic Inclusion
          Economic Inclusion

          Our Economic Inclusion Committee provides strategic support around research, policies, and programs that are focused on building equal opportunity.

          arrow-go
          Read More
        • ...
          Economic Inclusion
          Pacesetters

          We are developing an ecosystem of corporations and partners with the influence and buying power to transform economic inclusion for minority business enterprises (MBEs).

          arrow-go
          Read More
        • ...
          Fierce Urgency of Now Festival
          2023 Fierce Urgency of Now Festival

          The Fierce Urgency of Now Festival brings Boston’s diverse young professionals together with business leaders, organizations and their peers to build connection, advance careers and ignite positive change.

          09/12/2023 -

          09/15/2023

          Greater Boston

          arrow-go
          Read More
  • Policy & Impact
        • Policy & Impact

          • Overview
          • Leadership Councils
          • Amicus Advisory Board
        • GET INVOLVED IN OUR POLICY FOCUS AREAS

          Business Climate
          Read More
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          Read More
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          Read More
          Housing & Development
          Read More
          Talent
          Read More
          Transportation
          Read More
  • Our Networks
        • GBCC’s Networks

          • Overview
        • OUR NETWORKS

          City Awake

          City Awake empowers young professionals in a variety of ways that encourages these rising leaders to stay invested in the region’s future success.

          Read More
          BIMA

          BIMA (the Boston Interactive Media Association) serves a vibrant community of like-minded professionals from agencies, brands, publishers, and ad-tech companies with business interests in the New England market.

          Read More
          Women’s Network

          For more than 25 years, the Chamber’s Women’s Network has connected female professionals of all background and career levels. Today, our Women’s Network is the largest in New England, strengthening the professional networks of women each year.

          Read More
          MITX

          Through MITX (the Massachusetts Innovation and Technology Exchange), we’re building valuable connections between the people and ideas behind technology and its impact on the future of customer experiences, all to create a community that’s finding tomorrow’s solutions together.

          Read More
          Pacesetters

          We are developing an ecosystem of corporations and partners with the influence and buying power to transform economic inclusion for minority business enterprises (MBEs).

          Read More
          Small Business

          We support small business through public policy initiatives, events designed to connect small businesses in Greater Boston to their peers and established business leaders, professional development offerings, and free small business advising.

          Read More
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Chamber Supports H.4561 to Advance Transportation Funding Goals

April 12, 2022

The Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce submitted testimony in support of H.4561, An Act relative to Massachusetts’s transportation resources and climate. In addition, the Chamber urges the Legislature to re-adopt a mobility pricing commission to prepare the state for long-term transportation funding.
This legislation is the framework for how the state will spend more than $9 billion in federal and state funding generated in part by the federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. As the Legislature and state consider how to allocate funds, and which projects to prioritize, we urge both to incorporate the following principles:

  • Drive economic development: transportation investments should drive economic development, not respond to it. In creating the plan for spending, we urge the Legislature and MassDOT to consider which areas of the state are best suited – and will benefit the most from – economic growth and development.
  • Spread the funding: investments should be balanced across the state’s regions, with a particular focus on strengthening connections between eastern and western Massachusetts.
  • Solve other problems: when addressing high housing costs and emissions impact, transportation can be part of a problem or part of the solution. This funding should be directed to projects that will help alleviate the state’s housing affordability crisis, reduce congestion, and limit emissions.
  • Seek equity: transportation access opens up opportunities, and all residents of Massachusetts should have access to reliable public transit and transportation options for getting to school, work, and home.

In addition to the funding principles, there are worthwhile policy items to strengthen project delivery and implementation in the proposed legislation. The changes proposed will ensure that resources can be deployed quickly and efficiently, especially in the context of federal competitive grants. The Chamber supports considering additional tools to place the Commonwealth in the best position possible to compete for these resources in new and innovation processes, including A + B procurement methods and public/private partnerships that offer additional pathways to effectively procure, finance, and build needed transportation improvements.

The Legislature should also take the opportunity to evaluate the needs of the next generation transportation system and the future of mobility pricing in the context of significant changes to commuter behavior and evolving modes of transportation. The Chamber strongly encourages the Legislature to create a special commission on mobility pricing to study how the state should finance its transportation infrastructure over the long-term. Attached is suggested legislative language.

As the Commonwealth transitions towards the use of zero-emission and electric vehicles, declining motor vehicle fuel excise revenue will cripple transportation funding in the future. The funding reduction will impact operating and maintenance budgets, as well as the state’s ability to secure debt to fund transportation investments. By 2035, only electric and zero-emission vehicles will be sold in Massachusetts, a policy reaffirmed by the Senate’s recently released climate legislation. Between this policy and the Commonwealth’s legally binding carbon reduction limits in the 2050 Roadmap legislation adopted last year, an analysis of the future of transportation financing is urgently necessary. The Mobility Pricing Commission will begin this critical conversation by evaluating equitable roadway, public transit, and other mobility funding requirements and developing pricing scenarios to achieve stable funding and other policy goals.

The Chamber appreciates the Legislature’s prompt attention to the infrastructure investment opportunities created by the federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Responsibly stewarding unprecedented federal resources for transportation and climate infrastructure improvements will impact the Commonwealth for generations to come.

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