Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, September 19, 1993 TAG: 9309190042
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DANIEL HOWES STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
On one thing, Democrat Mary Sue Terry and Republican George Allen agree:
The War for Jobs is raging, pitting state against state. Yet Virginia often can be found on the sidelines wondering why it isn't making the big corporate announcements craved by governors from Maine to California.
Allen blames Virginia's lag on "an attitude of arrogance [and] complacency" bred by 12 years of Democrats in the governor's mansion. "Frankly, we're being out-hustled," he says, vowing to give economic development efforts his top priority as governor.
Terry, angling to succeed fellow Democrat Douglas Wilder, is necessarily more circumspect. "We have never been a state that had to get out there and peddle our wares the way other states did," she says.
"We're in a very unaccustomed place, and it calls for us to change our behavior. We're not accustomed to getting out there with sweat equity and going after them," she continues.
The next Virginia governor will inherit a state in transition: A double whammy - the recession and the end of the Cold War - exposed Virginia's increasing reliance on federal spending and the state revenue drawn from high-stakes commercial real estate, to name one example.
Simply put, Virginia had it comparatively easy during the '80s, as the Northern Virginia suburbs around Washington and Hampton Roads surged from an infusion of federal dollars. State revenues and state spending grew exponentially, masking an economic imbalance that would later force painful budget cutting.
The way Terry sees it, Virginia grew complacent in the '80s and failed to realize the rules of the game were changing. "Economic development and going after jobs is relatively new to Virginia," she says.
Terry's chief proposal: a new "Board of Commerce and Trade," drawn primarily from the state's business leadership. The panel, headed by the governor, would be appointed to six-year terms so as to "depoliticize" the state's economic development efforts.
The group would set economic policy for Virginia, including a cohesive incentive policy designed to attract new industry. A "Regional Economic Development Council" would be created to give local officials access to the policy-making board.
Allen dismisses the idea, calling it "nothing more than a cosmetic reshuffling of the bureaucracy." Instead, last week he released a 36-page document offering specific plans; it included two proposed tax credits tied to job creation and set the goal of creating 125,000 new jobs under an Allen administration.
But don't look for either candidate to push a special economic agenda for Western Virginia. It wouldn't sell where most of the voters live - east of here.
It's been said that there are two Virginias - one west of U.S. 29 with its capital in Roanoke, the other lying to the east and ruled from Richmond.
Western Virginia itself is no economic monolith. The Roanoke Valley, despite the loss of a key corporate player and other cutbacks, recently has been leading the state in job creation. But some New River Valley counties, and certainly some coalfield counties in far Southwest Virginia, regularly claim among the highest unemployment rates in the state.
Thus, what's good for Roanoke isn't necessarily good for Marion. Allen and Terry recognize that some western localities hurt by economic shifts driven by downsizing and new technology may need special help from a new administration in Richmond.
Allen has proposed job training tax credits and corporate headquarters tax credits that could be increased for struggling areas whose jobless rates are 0.5 of a percentage point above the state average.
Those proposals should be good news to Western Virginia economic developers who criticize the state's comparative lack of incentives for industrial recruitment.
Indeed, incentives - or the lack thereof - may prove a key economic development issue for the next governor. "Virginia must talk about [incentives] if it is going to be competitive," says Hugh Keogh, president of the Virginia Chamber of Commerce. "Incentives are happening in the marketplace, and Virginia has to come to grips with that."
Keogh, state director of economic development under Wilder and Gov. Gerald Baliles, sees similar themes issuing from the Terry and Allen camps: more aggressiveness, more responsiveness and more local input.
That could be a start. Western Virginia economic developers, none of whom would speak on the record, have criticized Wilder for giving economic development issues short shrift. Allen has joined the chorus, lambasting Wilder - and, by extension, Terry - for mistreating chief executive officers thinking about bringing jobs to Virginia.
Neither Allen nor Terry advocates broad changes in Virginia law to allow tax giveaways to prospective industry. Both tout Virginia's assets - its work force, its comparatively stable tax environment, its location - in efforts to sell the state.
But for those looking for specifics, Allen far outdistances Terry.
While Terry offers a broad strategic framework for drafting a new, statewide economic development policy, Allen targets changes he would make and goals he would set.
"If the next governor does not take immediate action to sharpen Virginia's competitive edge, competing states will continue to exploit this state government's inexcusable apathy," says Allen's "Blueprint for Creating Jobs in Virginia."
In addition to offering tax credits to new industry - their cost offset by new payroll taxes - Allen would:
Establish a "Virginia Business Resource Center" near Dulles International Airport to showcase the state's regions and development opportunities.
He won't say how much the center might cost or how it might be funded.
Open a trade office in Eastern Europe in the hopes of expanding Virginia's exports of coal, forest products, consulting services, advanced technology, tobacco and other agricultural goods.
He says he would reshuffle funds in the state's economic development budget to pay for the office.
Institute a "Virginia First" policy that would require the state to consider Virginia companies when acquiring goods and services.
Virginia, he says, "spent thousands of taxpayer dollars on printing purchased from a company called Pride of Florida" - which turns out to be part of the Florida penal system.
"Virginia taxpayers are subsidizing Florida's prison system at the expense of Virginia printers," an Allen campaign document says.
There's more, much of it appearing as a plan for this, a pledge to do that: make government more responsive to small business, develop "a comprehensive and aggressive coal export program," "properly" fund the state Department of Forestry and the Virginia Tech College of Forestry and Wildlife Resources.
"You have to have measurable, quantifiable goals on what you want to achieve in Virginia," he says, explaining his rationale for unveiling a detailed plan for economic development. "You need to have a blueprint in place. I don't think you can wait around."
Terry bundles her broad plan to overhaul state economic development efforts with a call for reducing handgun violence in schools and on the streets. "To create economic growth, we must make our schools and our streets safe," she says, calling for a five-day waiting period for the purchase of handguns.
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB