Ten chambers of commerce throughout Massachusetts are banding collectively to raised advocate for state companies on Beacon Hill.
The Massachusetts Chambers of Commerce Policy Network will look to strengthen the economic system and high quality of life within the Bay State by addressing a wide selection of points plaguing companies from taxes and income to transportation.
Though the group has met simply as soon as, Jim Rooney, president and CEO of the Greater Boston Chamber, mentioned its high precedence is obvious: making Massachusetts extra aggressive in attracting and retaining a proficient workforce.
“It feels like we have fallen into a little bit of a competitive crisis,” Rooney informed the Herald on Wednesday. “Other states have been aggressively pursuing Massachusetts talent and Massachusetts businesses. The numbers speak for themselves.”
The Bay State misplaced roughly 110,000 working professionals final 12 months, leaving for different states, Rooney mentioned. Speaking on a name from the Raleigh-Durham International Airport, he mentioned he met this week with the president of the Raleigh Chamber who informed him 700 persons are shifting into North Carolina day by day.
Before the creation of the coverage community, Rooney mentioned, Massachusetts had been one of many few remaining states throughout the nation and not using a statewide chamber advocating for insurance policies to profit companies.
“If the rest of the regions in the state are thriving, Boston wins by talent and businesses staying in Western Mass, north coast, south coast,” he mentioned. “We need that collective energy around the strategy to go compete.”
The coverage community consists of chamber presidents and CEOs from Worcester, Springfield, Cape Cod, South Shore, North Shore, South Coast, the Berkshires and metro Boston. Collectively, it represents about 10,000 member companies and nonprofits, and tens of millions of workers.
There are statewide enterprise associations that signify totally different industries, however chambers of commerce “have their ear closest to the ground,” mentioned Greg Reibman, president of the Charles River Regional Chamber, which serves Newton, Needham, Watertown and Wellesley.
With Gov. Maura Healey and her administration being simply two months right into a “new era” of Beacon Hill politics, Reibman referred to as it the correct time for the chambers to band collectively.
“She has been saying all of the right things and recognizing these problems, making housing and competitiveness priorities,” he mentioned of Healey. “I wish our lawmakers would move a little quicker than they traditionally have and hope they will.”
Chambers have at all times shared notes on bigger points, South Shore Chamber President Peter Forman mentioned, including he and different officers really feel like elevated dialogue is required with the state’s unsure economic system.
“It’s not necessarily about a specific tax issue or a regulation issue,” Forman mentioned of what sparked the necessity for the coverage community. “It’s just that greater awareness that the economy is shifting … there’s a greater sensitivity towards this issue of competitiveness.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com”