ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, June 4, 1995                   TAG: 9506050014
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JEFF STURGEON STAFF WRITE
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

VIRGINIA PAYING FOR ITS NEW JOBS

HIGHWAY departments like to mark road projects with signs saying, "Your tax dollars at work." If companies continue expanding in Virginia at the current pace, local and state economic development departments might need a batch of those signs, too.

Virginia government officials agreed to subsidize 16 of 33 major company expansions in the Roanoke and New River valleys last year with more than $35 million in business incentives.

Public funds are helping put an addition on Volvo GM Heavy Truck Corp. in Dublin, which has been promised incentives worth an estimated $30 million. Roanoke will put up about $100,000 for Vitramon Inc.'s new parking lot at its factory, while Botetourt County slashed the price of land by 70 percent for Arkay Packaging of New York.

Drive out Old Hollins Road, and you'll soon see a state-funded widening project primarily to benefit Hanover Direct Inc., a catalog retailer that operates two large warehouses in the Roanoke Valley. The state also is defraying the cost to train employees at Wolverine Gasket and Manufacturing Co. in Blacksburg and MW Manufacturers in Rocky Mount.

There's nothing illegal about any of this; giving to businesses that promise to create jobs and investment is part of a national trend. In fact, most of the gifts and promises were made publicly and announced with great fanfare.

Economic developers say incentives are the price communities now must pay to attract and retain industry. Increasingly, however, skeptics are asking: Are these investments sound? And do companies really expect the incentives they're offered?

State officials now admit they know few answers to these questions. Although the companies pledged to create more than 17,000 new jobs, it is not precisely known when employees will be hired or what the new jobs will pay.

Please turn to today's Business section for our report on economic incentives. 


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