During this year’s statewide campaign, Bob McDonnell and I talked a lot about getting our economy moving again and creating jobs. We said then, and we reaffirm now, that this is the most important issue currently facing our state.
Over the past several months we have worked to put together a comprehensive set of legislative and budget initiatives that will position Virginia to take full advantage of a future economic resurgence. On January 26th we unveiled our Jobs and Opportunity Agenda in a press conference at the State Capitol that was attended by more than 300 legislative and business leaders.
Even though state government is current facing significant budget shortfalls, we have asked the General Assembly to appropriate an additional $50M toward proven economic development and job creation programs. That means more money for the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, the Virginia Tourism Corporation, the Virginia Film Office, the Department of Business Assistance and more.
With this additional funding we will be able to open new economic development offices in China and India and implement an aggressive media campaign to market Virginia as a great place to do business or take a vacation.
We will be able to invest in a number of strategic programs that are designed to improve Virginia’s ability to attract enhanced manufacturing facilities, become the East Coast’s energy leader and assert our position as a great place for biotechnology and life sciences companies.
And we will be able to double the size of the Governor’s Opportunity Fund, which provides incentives to new businesses locating in Virginia; and the Jobs Investment Partnership Program, which provides grants to businesses that need workforce training assistance.
In addition, we have proposed a number of legislative initiatives that will give our economic development professionals the tools they need to recruit new companies to Virginia.
We have proposed a number of new and expanded tax incentives for businesses that create jobs in Virginia, including a doubling of the Major Facilities Business Tax Credit and the implementation of a new Green Energy Jobs Tax Credit.
In addition to doubling the size of the Governor’s Opportunity Fund, we have proposed providing additional flexibility in the fund by allowing grants and loans based on anticipated state and local tax revenue and more latitude for local matching funds for certain projects.
To assist small business in gaining access to the capital they need to start a business or expand a business we have proposed tax credits to financial institutions than invest in a new $100M fund that will make loans to small businesses.
We have proposed reprioritizing how money is invested in Virginia’s Enterprise Zones by requiring that available funds go first to those companies that are creating jobs. Currently, we are only funding 46% of these obligations.
And we have proposed continuing Virginia’s Business One Stop program, which is designed to assist small businesses in understanding state licensing and regulatory requirements, and streamlining these requirements to enable anyone to create a small business in Virginia within 48 hours.
A conservative economic impact analysis estimates that our Jobs and Opportunity Agenda will create nearly 30,000 new jobs in the next two years and generate $311M in additional state and local tax revenue.
I am pleased that our Jobs and Opportunity Agenda has strong bipartisan support in the General Assembly.
Now is the time to invest in these important economic development programs and pass this job creating legislation. These changes will better position Virginia to compete for new business, industry and jobs.
These are challenging economic times, but if we make the right decisions now we can position Virginia to take full advantage of a future economic resurgence.
Please contact your legislator today and encourage them to support the McDonnell/Bolling Jobs and Opportunity Agenda so we can get Virginia’s economy growing again.
Bill Bolling is Lieutenant Governor of Virginia and the Commonwealth’s first Chief Jobs Creation Officer.
Dear Lt Governor Bolling:
I supported you and Gov. McDonnell in the recent election. I personally believe that your jobs initiative is a critical program in the Commonwealth.
However, let me provide a bit more perspective:
1. Employment in Virginia is a function of two initiatives - attracting new jobs to the Commonwealth and maintianing existing jobs in the Commonwealth. Any honest discussion of employment in the state must address both of these points.
2. Northern Virginia has, for years, been the center of job growth in Virginia. In fact, Busines Week just rated the fastest growing cities in each American state. McLean was cited as the fastest growing “city” in Virginia:
http://images.businessweek.com/ss/10/01/0128_americas_fastest_growing_cities/47.htm
Virginia’s overall employment problems would be a whole lot worse if not for the job growth over the last two decades in NoVa. I assume that even Richmond - based politicians can understand this.
3. The job growth in Northern Virginia has been in spite of Virginia’s General Assembly and a succession of governors. I say this as a life long resident of Northern Virginia and as a top executive in a company which employs thousands of people in Northern Virginia. The state government’s idiotic refusal to raise the gas tax past the 1986 level (measured in cents per gallon) is one example of the overall incompetence in Richmond. Do you not understand that the costs of roads have inflated since 1986? Is the ability to relate job growth and population growth to transportation needs beyond your analytical abilities? The problem does not stop at transportation. The institutionalized theft known as the Local Composite Index is, perhaps, an even worse example of Richmond’s institutional incompetence. I am sure that you understand that index. I am equally sure you understand that Gov. Kaine decided to freeze the index this year. The index has funneled money from NoVa to other schools systems around the Commonwealth. This year, for the first year, some of the transfer would have reversed in Northern Virginia’s favor. Make no mistake - Northern Virginia would still be paying a lot more in taxes for education than is spent in Northern Virginia but the gap would be somewhat less. What happened - the index was frozen so that no reversal would occur. Here is a good article explaining the situation:
http://www.vagazette.com/articles/2010/01/25/news/doc4b5da09f9fdd1088139925.txt
4. What does all this have to do with employment in Virginia? Simple - if the state continues to treat Northern Virginia unfairly the employers in Northern Virginia will move elsewhere. Republican hero Sarah Palin famously said she could see Russia from her backyard. I can almost see Maryland and DC from mine. Our employees would be just as happy living a couple of miles east of the Potomac as they are living a couple of miles west. And please don’t tell me about how high the taxes are in Maryland. Save that kind of double talk for people who haven’t lived in Northern Virginia all their lives. Between the sales tax surcharges, real estate taxes, fees, toll roads and other Richmond-inspired scams, the taxes are about the same. The only difference is that the state government in Annapolis isn’t engaged in a war on middle class Marylanders living in the Washington suburbs.
5. Your goal of adding 30,000 jobs in Virginia is a wothy goal. However, I’d spend a little more time thinking about how to preserve the hundreds of thousands of jobs already in Northern Virginia. As for me, I will be talking to my friends at Northrop Grumman. I think they should understand the LCI process and the sudden freeze of that process before they decise whether to relocate to DC, Maryland or Northern Virginia - don’t you?
is this an endorsement for 2014?