Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, May 25, 1993 TAG: 9305250582
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GEORGE KEGLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The unidentified manufacturer's first choice was the soon-to-be vacant Gardner-Denver Mining & Manufacturing building until offers from North Carolina and Kentucky came in, Fitzpatrick said at a Southwest Virginia economic development forum Monday. The rejection came earlier this month, he said.
Virginia law does not permit such industrial incentives, but a six-member panel emphasized the need for a new look at the state's old ways in order to stay in the race for new business.
Tax incentives are based on the number of employees a prospect brings; so the larger the work force the greater the payment, said Beth Doughty, executive director of the Roanoke Valley Economic Development Partnership.
For each 1,000 manufacturing jobs, another 1,000 jobs are created in other fields and this means the community lost 2,000 jobs, Fitzpatrick said.
Competitors for jobs are not nearby communities, he said, but rather other states and other countries. A special deal-closing fund of $3.4 million was created by the General Assembly last year but it has limited uses, Fitzpatrick said.
A half-dozen speakers answered questions and gave their opinions on economic development in Southwest Virginia in 1993 and beyond at a Roanoke Town Hall Meeting of the Young Lawyers Section of Virginia Bar Association. About 75 people attended the Radisson Patrick Henry Hotel forum, broadcast on WVTF radio.
State Sen. Brandon Bell, R-Roanoke County, said Virginia is like an old-style, very conservative banker. But banking has changed to a very aggressive, very competitive marketplace, he said. "We have the will to do that, but not all of the cogs are in place."
Other panel members were Tom Robertson, president of Carilion Health System and chairman of Roanoke Valley Business Council; John Stroud, president of Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce; and James Jones, Bristol lawyer and chairman of Forward Southwest Virginia.
Economic development needs presented by questioners and the panel:
The No. 1 issue expressed by everyone is that they want their children and grandchildren to be able to stay here and not have to go elsewhere for work, according to Jones.
The state and region should have cohesive plans, and regulations need to be addressed from a competitive view, Bell said. If it takes two years to get an environmental permit and North Carolina issues one in six weeks, a prospect has no choice.
A lack of venture capital for expanding small companies limits expansion and prevents the start of minority- and women-owned firms, Stroud said. Also, reduction of the crime rate would make the valley a better place to live. And a major issue is the city's sewage treatment plant, up to 95 percent of its capacity and operating under an order not to add major hookups.
Citizens can put pressure on their elected officials to take a regional approach, Jones said.
If there is no economic growth, there will be no quality of life, according to Doughty.
We've got to quit fighting among ourselves and decide who we want to be and then move in that direction, Stroud said.
One of the first issues of the Business Council's new vision is to determine what is the region and what do we call it, Robertson said. Our neighbors do not think Roanoke Valley has all of the answers.
Mildred Willis urged consideration of a four-year university to spur Roanoke's economic development. Panel members said a new campus would be too expensive, but they called for more uses of Virginia Tech. Fitzpatrick, a Tech graduate, said the university's College of Urban Studies could move to Roanoke.
"We need to set our own future. . . . We've got to ensure that the future doesn't pass Western Virginia by," Fitzpatrick said.
by CNB