McDonnell releases jobs creation plan
By JR Hoeft | Tuesday, January 26th, 2010 | PolicyGovernor 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.
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Conservative to the core; liberal with his opinion! J.R. has been involved in politics for over a decade and has worked on several campaigns in Hampton Roads. He has served on the Executive Committee of the Republican Party of Chesapeake and the Central Committee of the Republican Party of Virginia. He is also the director of “Blogs United” in Virginia. E-mail J.R.. Follow J.R. on Twitter.
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7 Responses to "McDonnell releases jobs creation plan"
This is a read-ahead copy of the Republican response to the State of the Union speech on Wednesday. It will be interesting to compare McDonnell’s plan to what is proposed in the President’s speech.
There’s nothing wrong with McDonnell’s plan. He’s done the best he could here, given the limited ability of the governor of Virginia to do much to stimulate the economy to create jobs. If any jobs are created from this set of programs, they are likely years away. But investing in economic development is a GOOD thing. However, it will be a BAD thing if McDonnell’s proposed cuts to the budget kill more jobs in the public sector than he’s likely to encourage the creation of in the private sector. We’ve yet to see how the governor plans to balance the budget, I’d guess those plans were held back until after he gives the response to the state of the union speech.
“$311 million in new revenue for the Commonwealth over five years” This isn’t a tax cut or new money. Just a moving the pea inside the cup on the table and playing a game. And to those tens of thousands of local city/school and state employees who would have to fund 5% into the VRS retiement this is a tax increase. That isn’t going to go over very well in the next election.
Frankly, stealing money from one area of the budget is not new money. And one can already see Bob is backing away from his position during the election of “no new taxes”. Tax cuts IMO means money returned to the taxpayers and not more money for goverment programs…
School, city and state employees are the voters that are key to change in Va. Bob is quickly going to lose that support at the grass root level when he hits them all in their pockets.
Tax & Spend Bob… Nothing has changed in Richmond except the names. Sad.
There are actions necessary to balance the budget with declining revenues. Cutting spending means making very unpopular decisions. That means jobs being cut. It means some services being cut. It means bureaucracy being minimized and cut through. Maybe reduction in overtime. Forced leave. Those things have to happen and they’re not easy. It’s painful. But it has to happen. Politically, someone has to have the strength to do that and accept the political threats from those who feel they should be protected and unscathed in this economy. When you work for a governmental agency one goes in with an open eyes and mind of security over the private sector. Bill, deal with it or look for a new career. I’m sure in this economy there would be an over abundance of those who qualify on a waiting list to replace dissatisfied state and city employees.
I didn’t issue a threat. I pointed out my observation. BTW: Politicians face a threat or reaction anytime they take a vote. It is called accountability. I support it and we change elected officials when things go the wrong way or direction. It happens all the time.
As for the voters, I think you misjudge the number of voting local school, city and state employees who actually vote in Virginia. Take a minute to think of the numbers all across Virginia. I can think of many public employees who voted for and supported Bob’s run. They supported the tax cuts as they have budget limitations at home. Now they may have to pay 5% more out of their pockets (if the change actually occurs) and they are not happy. Locally VB is planning to raise REtaxes, start a trash fee and who knows what else is in the making. Those supporters are now changing their minds as they are getting hit hard on both ends. Funny how many folks want others to pay and get on the bandwagon until they find themselves personally on the chopping block.
BTW: Understood your point and “take it or be replaced” threat but just remember, you get what you pay for. No cuts happen in a vacuum and no cuts are without additional fallout. If you want cheap, poor, unmotivated service and employees, you’ll likely get it. It is shame that the youth of the future will not get great teachers or the quality of their education will drop. Or that cops can’t protect us or we can’t keep criminals locked up do to a budget issue. But those things come with cuts…
If that fallout comes on an election day or with reductions in service it will happen and folks will complain. I know it will never impact you or me but somebody will pay the price of the cuts and they may not even know why. Too bad for those people…
I think the proposals are fine as long as the politicians are willing to lose positions in the next go around and the taxpayers know what the results will be on their lives and communities.
Hmmmm…Post blog reports McDonnell says he may not actually issue budget cut proposals, may just talk quitely with legislators. I suppose he can do that, but it seems like a crappy thing to do to your friends in the legislature, who then have to take all the heat for the cuts.
Of course, one wonders how you can quietly cut $4,000,000,000 from the state budget that will cascade down and require tens of thousands of workers to be laid off by local governments. Quiet may the objective, and it will work for a few more weeks or so, but soon, citizens will realize what this really means for them. When those thousands of employees no longer have a job, the effects on local economies will be severe as well. Stand by, it will get real noisey soon.
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