Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, October 9, 1995 TAG: 9510090142
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
1. "The Allen administration set precedent when it offered huge incentives to lure Disney's America to Northern Virginia and Motorola to the Richmond area. To what extent should Virginia participate in a bidding war with other states for economic development prospects?"
2. "Workers earning the minimum wage have a difficult time making ends meet. What policies would you advocate to give more people a better chance of earning a 'liveable' wage?"
For the Senate seat covering Roanoke and most of Roanoke County:
John Edwards (D)
1. Incentives:
"Incentives must be used with caution to avoid giving away our money without an assured return to taxpayers." He says the best incentive for creating jobs "is to create the best educational institutions. Motorola, for instance, was attracted to Virginia by plans to create an engineering school at Virginia Commonwealth University. To get into a bidding war with our states could undermine efforts to invest in our educational institutions."
2. Wages: "In order to help people trying to live on the minimum wage, Virginia needs to make sure that people have affordable child care, accessible transportation, affordable health care coverage, affordable housing, and the opportunity to continue their education to improve their job skills."
State Sen. Brandon Bell (R)
1. Incentives:
"What we don't want is a bidding war with other states. The bottom line is offering incentives to attract big corporations. But if the commonwealth were to allow concessions, I would only support them if the returns on investment far exceeded any state contribution of resources."
2. Wages: "This is really an education issue. In my profession, I work to help displaced workers find new jobs. And there are many high-paying jobs available. It's an employee's market out there. But the key to obtaining many of these jobs is having the tools. We must improve the quality of education. Also, freeing business from burdensome and expensive government regulation will allow companies to expand production and increase wages for workers."
For the House of Delegates seat covering western Bedford County, a swath of Roanoke County from Clearbrook to Vinton to Hollins to Glenvar to Catawba, southern Botetourt County and Craig County:
Del. Richard Cranwell (D)
1. Incentives: "Economic incentives are a fact of life. If Virginia wants to be a player in attracting new industry, it will have to offer incentives. However, I am concerned that there is no overarching state policy guiding the incentives being offered by the state." He says the state should study the matter, with special attention on what can be done to direct economic development to Southside and Southwest Virginia.
2. Wages: "The key to good jobs and good wages is good education." He says that's why the state should spend more money on education, especially on easing the funding disparities between rural and suburban school systems.
Trixie Averill (R)
1. Incentives: "We need to continue this practice, but only when there is going to be a significant return on the commonwealth's investment and when it is necessary to close a deal, particularly when we are in sharp competition with other states. It's probably not wise for Virginia to get into an all-out bidding war."
2.Wages: She says the state should stop "unnecessary taxing."
For the House of Delegates seat that covers Northwest Roanoke, South Roanoke, Southwest Roanoke and the Cave Spring-Hunting Hills section of Roanoke County:
Del. Clifton "Chip" Woodrum (D)
1. Incentives: "Management of Virginians' tax dollars is a fiduciary responsibility and one that should be dealt within a conservative manner. The Disney experience, in which it was discovered that the executive branch intentionally misled the General Assembly as to economic projections of the project, has taught a valuable lesson. In this effort we must be cautious.
"The Motorola experience, on the other hand, apparently is bringing high paying jobs with less economic investment by Virginia's taxpayers. As a result, Virginia should recapture its investment in a relatively short period of time and there will be long-term benefits statewide, in the Richmond area and to Virginia Tech which is participating in some of the educational effort."
2. Wages: He says workers need to be better educated. "For those on the lower end of the economic scale, retraining, vocational education, and adult and continuing education are matters that should be given high priority. Virginia needs desperately to devote more resources and attention to its apprenticeship programs which have been neglected over the past several years."
Newell Falkinburg (R)
1. Incentives: "There is nothing more important for the future prosperity of our commonwealth than the thriving and growing job market. Yes, I would support offering incentives to lure business to Virginia if the long-term benefit is greater than the short-term investment costs."
2. Wages: "Tax incentives, tax relief to ease education, housing, food problems and poverty. People work at minimum wage jobs because they are inadequately trained to participate in other high-paying areas of the economy. The obvious strategy is to graduate students who can read, do math problems, possess skills useful to industry."
For the House of Delegates seat that covers Southeast Roanoke, Northeast Roanoke, part of Northwest Roanoke and the Peters Creek Road section of Roanoke County:
Del. Vic Thomas (D)
1. Incentives: "The best way to attract new industry is to support an educational system that produces knowledgeable, skilled employees. When we try to attract new business to the Roanoke Valley, we have to show that our employees can take on high-tech, high paying jobs. The General Assembly funded the Virginia Tech Center for Organizational and Technological Advancement at the Hotel Roanoke to promote Roanoke's economic development. One of the things that is bringing Motorola to Virginia is the creation of a new school of engineering at Virginia Commonwealth University. This year, I voted with the rest of the Appropriations Committee to approve the planning money for the new engineering school."
2. Wages: "The way to increase wages in the Roanoke Valley is to increase the skill level of our work force. The key to good jobs is good schools. I will continue to support our public schools and higher education in the Roanoke Valley and Southwestern Virginia. Students in Roanoke can now get a four-year degree from Radford by attending Virginia Western, and can work on graduate degrees from Virginia Tech and UVa at the Graduate Center downtown. I patroned the bills to create and support the Graduate Center."
Jeff Artis (R)
1. Incentives: "We don't have any other choice but to participate in the bidding war. We don't want to create a Disney World situation like in Orlando, but if we want companies to relocate in Virginia we don't have any other choice but to give these companies sweetheart deals. That's the economic reality of the 21st century."
2. Wages: He says schools could do a better job of teaching and students could do a better job of learning. "When someone finds themselves as an adult on minimum wage, often times it's the fault of the worker," he says. "But I do advocate reinventing vocational and technical training in high schools. I think our high schools are doing a dismal job across the state of preparing students for vocational jobs."
For the House of Delegates seat that covers Blacksburg, part of Christiansburg, northern Montgomery County and eastern Giles County:
Del. Jim Shuler (D)
1. Incentives: He says Virginia should first emphasize its record as a right-to-work, low-tax state with strong higher education. However, incentives "can also be used as an added attraction." He supports tax credits, partnerships with education and infrastructure improvements. He also says existing Virginia firms need "consideration and partnerships."
2. Wages: "As we are more and more becoming a knowledge-based, global marketplace I believe that more vocational and higher education opportunities are the best resource to allow people to improve their earnings. We must make education the No. 1 priority for the commonwealth at all levels. In addition, job retraining, adult education, public and higher education are also the best resource for lowering crime and drug abuse."
Larry Linkous (R)
1. Incentives: "The competition with some our surrounding states is fierce and incentives are an important tool in promoting our state and individual localities. However, in offering incentives, we must weigh them very carefully against the benefits the industry will provide to the community in which it locates and the commonwealth as a whole."
2. Wages: "There will always be a demand for employment in minimum wage jobs and that wage can be helpful to supplement the family income. This is true in cases such as teen-agers who work part time and gain valuable experience. The key to better wages is the creation of more high-wage jobs through new industrial development. This new development coupled with a better-educated and well-trained work force will cause wages to rise."
For the state Senate seat that covers Montgomery County, part of Pulaski County, part of Carroll County, Galax, Grayson County and Smyth County:
State Sen. Madison Marye (D)
1. Incentives: He says any incentives that are offered should be "fair" to existing industries, provide a "reasonable return on investment to the people of Virginia," provide "stable" employment that is "recession-proof or resistant," and provide "quality" jobs.
2. Wages: He says he worries about workers who find themselves "in low-paying jobs without health insurance of other benefits." That's why he says he supports allowing businesses to join together to buy health insurance for their employees and employee profit-sharing programs.
Pat Cupp (R)
1. Incentives:
He says there needs to be "a balance between offering incentives and selling the many advantages of Virginia." However, he says Virginia must "be open to offering incentives" because "competition among states is ferocious."
2. Wages: He says the state should increase the state income tax deduction from $800 to $2,400. But he says "the best policy" is to have "a growing economy with continuous job creations."
For the House of Delegates seat covering Floyd County, most of Franklin County, the Moneta precinct in Bedford County and part of Pittsylvania County:
Claude Whitehead (D)
1. Incentives: "My experience in economic development convinces me that incentives are necessary in this day to meet the competition for attracting industry. However, there comes a point at which the negatives outweigh the positives." He says Allen "went much too far" with Disney by offering too much money which should have gone toward education instead. "My experience in dealing with prospective industry has been that we too often know too little about what other states are offering, particularly North Carolina in my region. We need better information so that we can intelligently counter what they are offering. But when the price starts becoming too high, it's time for us to end the bidding war."
2. Wages: "We need to invest in our public schools and our colleges and universities. We also need more and better trade schools and relevant trade courses for the noncollege bound students."
Del. Allen Dudley (R)
1. Incentives: "We must be selective with the offering of incentives, and all incentives should be performance based. I believe the use of incentives has been handled in an appropriate manner in the past, but I think we need to develop a more comprehensive policy." He suggests enterprise zones, tax credits for new jobs and work force training programs are appropriate incentives.
2. Wages: He suggests raising the personal exemption allowance on state income taxes. "The current levy of $800 is way too low," he says. He says if the state turned over lottery proceeds to local governments, they'd be able to hold down property taxes.
For the Senate seat that covers Bedford, Bedford County, Lynchburg and Amherst County:
Barbara Coleman (D)
1. Incentives: She supports them. "That's the way to bring good jobs and quality jobs to our area." She also supports improving education. "Motorola came here and located to Goochland because of the proximity of four universities right close. They stated in the paper that was the main reason they came."
2. Wages: She says there should be a "conscious" effort to "market" the state's resources to seek out "quality jobs."
Del. Steve Newman (R)
1. Incentives: He supports using incentives, especially in the Motorola and Disney cases. "If we don't spend the minute amount of money it takes to get them here, we will lose jobs and other states will get them and we will get behind."
2. Wages: He supports Allen's proposal to cut income taxes and says Virginia must promote economic development in general. That's why he criticizes "the arduous, antiquated" process Virginia has for issuing environmental permits to businesses. He calls this "a job killer for minimally skilled laborers."
ALSO ON THE BALLOT:
The following state legislators are unopposed for re-election:
For the House of Delegates seat covering Salem, most of Southwest Roanoke County, and eastern Montgomery County:
Del. Morgan Griffith (R)
For the state Senate seat covering Botetourt County, western Roanoke County, Salem, Bath County, Alleghany County, Covington, Clifton Forge, Craig County, Giles County, part of Pulaski County and Radford:
State Sen. Malfourd "Bo" Trumbo (R)
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB