Join us to hear from two influential leaders as they discuss how the Commonwealth can lead the AI Revolution.
01/21/2025
9:30am - 11:00am
Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce
Hear from James E. Rooney about the state of the economy, and how it all matters to businesses, residents, and policymakers.
01/22/2025
2:00pm - 2:30pm
Virtual
Join on us on Friday, January 31, as we host our highly anticipated 2025 Pinnacle Awards Luncheon.
01/31/2025
11:00am - 1:30pm
Omni Boston Hotel at the Seaport
Go deeper than basic DEI training to achieve higher productivity, satisfaction, and revenue growth with our new corporate workshop.
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.
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.
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.
City Awake empowers young professionals in a variety of ways that encourages these rising leaders to stay invested in the region’s future success.
We are developing an ecosystem of corporations and partners with the influence and buying power to transform economic inclusion for minority business enterprises (MBEs).
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.
09/14/2024 -
09/17/2024
Suffolk University - Sargent Hall
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.
For 30 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.
The Massachusetts Apprentice Network convenes employers, training providers, and talent sources interested in developing and implementing apprenticeship programs in occupations across industries and statewide in fields such as tech, advanced manufacturing, healthcare, financial services, and more.
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.
Explore our mission and values to better understand how we are leading the business community forward.
Our member directory is your resource to discover, connect, and engage with Boston’s businesses from every industry and sector.
Policy Initiative
Vice President, Finance & Technology
The MBTA’s budget picture is bleak: existing debt service accounts for almost 20% of total expenses and the T projects a $366 million budget shortfall for FY24, closed by one-time funds. The T projects its budget gap will increase with each fiscal year.
The gas tax raises more than $720 million annually for the state’s transportation system, including debt service. However, state law prohibits gas-powered vehicle sales in MA by 2035
Transportation revenues are typically a form of user fees – tolls, gas tax, registration/license fees, etc. – however, state and federal laws impact and limit how these revenues are generated and distributed.
The Chamber will continue its role as a leading voice on transportation policy. We will facilitate knowledge transfer between the public and private sector.
We will identify and advocate for reforms to transportation funding that seek to generate revenue while also influencing commuter behavior.
The Chamber will convene members and other stakeholders to discuss the future of transportation in the region.
“We’re still without a mechanism for figuring out how to deal with a long-term strategy for funding and pricing mobility. Our way of dealing with transportation funding is to lurch from crisis to crisis…That does not allow us to have a comprehensive, strategic funding approach to transportation.”
And for now, the proposal doesn’t include a sustainable, long-term funding fix for the T’s day-to-day expenses. Chamber president Jim Rooney, a former GM of the T, said solutions that could include tolls & congestion pricing will be “incredibly politically difficult things to implement. It’s patch the leak in the roof while we figure out how we’re going to pay for a new roof.”
“I’m not predisposed to a new tax. I think that the genesis of that is that some other jurisdictions have sort of gone in that direction,” Chamber President Jim Rooney told the Herald. “Broad-based taxes either have not been part of the equation in Massachusetts, or when they were, for example, the sales tax that was dedicated to the T back in the 90s, it failed miserably.”
Jim Rooney, Chamber President & CEO, said congestion pricing, or an additional tolling tax for drivers, is among the strategies the Governor’s transportation task force will be considering: “Doing nothing is not an option. There’s a bunch of things that have positive and negative aspects to them, but doing nothing is not an option, particularly when the gas tax is going away.”
The Healey-Driscoll Administration swore in members of the new Transportation Funding Task Force, which is tasked with developing recommendations for a long-term, sustainable transportation finance plan. The recommendations will address the need for a safe, reliable, equitable & efficient transportation network, including roadways, bridges, railways, & bus and transit systems.
The Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce is pushing Governor Healey’s administration to offer a new MBTA boss a big pay hike over the last one, with the hope that the governor recruits the most talented person for what promises to be a difficult but crucial job.
“I am more confident that we have turned a corner on truly prioritizing our mobility needs than I have felt in decades,” said Rooney, who previously spent 17 years at the MBTA, rising to deputy general manager. “Let’s face it, the transportation policies of the past 30 years have left us in a mess and the biggest challenge in fixing it will be figuring out how to pay for it.”
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