Governor Bob McDonnell, along with legislators from both parties, released his jobs creation plan at the state capitol today. Some of the ideas we’ve heard before, such as doubling the Governor’s Opportunity Fund, but many of those ideas and new ones were expanded upon today.
From a McDonnell press release:
Among the highlights of McDonnell’s agenda are measures to double the Governor’s Opportunity Fund, create a state HUB Zone Program, lower the threshold for Virginia’s Major Business Facility Job Tax Credit, provide tax credits for movie production, help veterans open small businesses, direct future royalties and revenue from offshore energy production to transportation and green energy development, and create the Virginia Universities Clean Energy Development and Economic Stimulus Foundation to encourage and facilitate energy research and economic development at Virginia’s universities and in the Commonwealth’s rural areas. A preliminary economic impact analysis prepared by the Virginia Economic Development Partnership estimates that just the budget initiatives component of McDonnell’s “Jobs and Opportunity Agenda” alone will lead to over $311 million in new revenue for the Commonwealth over five years, and the creation of more than 29,000 new jobs over the biennium.
Read more about the governor’s plan.
