The House overwhelmingly endorsed a $1.1 billion plan to expand the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center yesterday, in a bid to make the Hub a top five U.S. convention market.
In a 130-19 vote, House members approved the measure, which calls for the project to be financed with revenue from existing hospitality industry charges, primarily a 4.25 percent tax on Boston and Cambridge hotel rooms.
Massachusetts Convention Center Authority Executive Director James Rooney said, "We've been working on this for four years. I feel like it was vetted in a very responsible way."
House Speaker Robert DeLeo said the expansion's impact — largely in tax revenue — would be felt beyond the Hub.
"Obviously that money is not just staying in Boston," he said. "We take that money into our government, we put that into our general fund. That's going throughout the state."
DeLeo said a separate "economic development" bill aimed at boosting employment in other regions also is in the works.
The BCEC expansion bill now goes to the Senate, where Senate President Therese Murray has expressed support.
Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation president Michael Widmer said he sees the MCCA as "another piece of our overall economic future in the state." But while it's "made the case" for the expansion, there still will be liabilities, he said.
"Even with hotel expansions, we won't have an adequate number of hotel rooms in the immediate vicinity (of the BCEC), so we'll still be behind many cities in that respect," Widmer said. "And some of the projections about future conventions that would come to Boston are uncertain."
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