Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, the state's chief job-creation officer, got a lunch pail full of ideas last night about how to create more jobs in Virginia.
At the Richmond Times-Dispatch's 28th Public Square, Bolling ducked the question of whether the state should allow uranium mining in Southside Virginia, but he endorsed fewer regulations, more tax breaks, and increased emphasis on biotechnology as ways to create jobs in a state where unemployment is at a 25-year high.
He heard from a playwright, a man dressed in ball and chains to protest over-regulation, and a union boss during a 90-minute question-and-answer session before about 100 people attending the meeting at the Richmond Times-Dispatch building.
Bolling and Gov. Bob McDonnell have made jobs creation a central focus of their administration. The McDonnell administration has proposed a series of job-creation measures, including tax incentives to lure industry, tourists and movie producers to Virginia. Despite a $4 billion budget deficit that the General Assembly is trying to address, the incentives will cost about $50 million.
"You've got to spend money to make money," said Bolling, who disclosed that he and McDonnell plan to visit the 50 largest businesses in the state during the next year to find out what their leaders like and don't like about Virginia.
Several state officials and at least two members of the General Assembly were in the audience. In a first for a Public Square, three local business people volunteered to tweet their impressions of the session in progress.
To playwright Jonathan Logan, worried about a lack of opportunity in the artistic community, Bolling said the economic-development package includes motion picture production tax credits of up to $5 million during the next two years.
The last major production here, the HBO miniseries on John Adams, received $1.25 million in state incentives and generated $80 million in expenditures in Virginia, he said.
Linwood Russell, who runs an assisted-living business and was dressed in prison stripes, said "I'm being micro-managed by a state work force that don't understand."
He said a new $50 license fee and regulations about whom he can hire are making it hard for him to do business.
When Bolling, suggesting that Russell might serve on a panel that is being set up to review regulations, asked him to give a card to his aide, Russell said: "They always lose my number."
Richard Atkinson, owner of a medical research laboratory in the Virginia Biotechnology Research Park in Jackson Ward, said the state should invest in equipment, such as a centrifuge, to help tenants of the park.
Bolling acknowledged that the state has lagged behind many other states in the biotechnology field but said the incentive program will offer performance grants for biotech research.
Businessman Ron Melancon said the state should try to reattract a Disney park to Virginia. More than a decade ago, after citizen opposition, Disney abandoned plans to locate a theme park in Northern Virginia..
Decrying the lack of Virginia tourism promotion money, Bolling said: "If I hear about the Robert Trent Jones golf trail one more time, I'm going to barf."
The state of Alabama has been advertising the golf trail on Virginia television stations.
McDonnell has proposed increasing state funding for tourism promotion by $3.6 million in each of the next two years.
Breanne Armbrust, with the Virginia People's Assembly, said that jobs brought into the state should be sustainable and pay a living wage. She also asked about the proposed elimination of the corporate income tax.
Bolling replied that the end of the tax is not part of the administration's "jobs and opportunity agenda," but he thinks reducing or eliminating it would have "a tremendous economic benefit."
But he said scrapping the tax now would create an even greater shortfall and so is not feasible but could be in future years.
Contact Tyler Whitley at (804) 649-6780 or twhitley@timesdispatch.com.
Contact Olympia Meola at (804) 649-6812 or omeola@timesdispatch.com.
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement