Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, October 21, 1994 TAG: 9412210067
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
"I think Rick Boucher showcases Rick Boucher," said Fast at a news conference to highlight his economic and tax positions.
Boucher started running a television ad Wednesday that mentions the program and quotes workers who found jobs because of it. Boucher brings business and federal government executives - many of whom he meets through his seat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee - to the region to try to get them to locate operations here.
Boucher defended the 7-year-old program, which he said Thursday has brought $100million in investment to the 9th District. He cited the Warner-Lambert Co. in Pulaski County, which moved to the district in 1989, as an example of a business that was attracted specifically because of his tour. Warner-Lambert's subsidiary, Tetra Sales U.S.A., moved to Montgomery County in 1993 because of the company's success in Pulaski, Boucher said. Other examples: the Bell Atlantic directory assistance center in Pulaski and a TRW Inc. automotive parts plant in Smyth County. "I am very precise about the credit that I'm taking," he said.
Fast suggested that government efforts to lure businesses may end up squeezing out private investment. That's because it costs tax money to erect shell buildings and put in roads and sewage systems. If taxes were cut instead, that would free up more private capital for investment, Fast said.
Fast also has suggested that Boucher is eager to take credit but not willing to take blame for national economic policies that Fast believes are hurting the economy by imposing excessive government regulation and taxation.
"Why didn't [Boucher] come down and showcase the Radford arsenal when it laid off hundreds of people?" Fast said.
Fast, a mathematics professor at Bluefield College, outlined job-creation ideas he endorses as part of the Republican Party's "Contract with America," a 10-point platform of legislative initiatives that House Minority Whip Newt Gingrich, R-Georgia, and other conservative Republicans want to take on in January.
The package includes a 50 percent capital gains tax cut and an emphasis on cutting back on unfunded mandates passed from the federal government to state and local governments. Also, the plan would require federal agencies to assess the risk and cost to businesses of every new regulation.
"We need to reduce the cost of capital, thus providing incentives for people to invest in Southwest Virginia," Fast said. "It's a very simple economic principle: What you tax, you get less of; what you subsidize, you get more of. Washington is taxing investment, it's taxing capital, it's taxing small businesses. Therefore, we're getting less capital investment than we would otherwise and therefore fewer jobs."
Boucher favors three steps to boost savings and investments: reforming individual retirement account rules to encourage savings; an investment tax credit, which would help small businesses; and a capital gains differential based on new investments. He expects those three proposals to come up in the next session of Congress.
Memo: ***CORRECTION***