Creating jobs and opportunity in Virginia's technology industry

When Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R) and I took office in 2010 more than 300,000 Virginians were out of work, our state’s unemployment rate had increased to 7.2 percent, and many of our core economic development agencies lacked the resources they needed to effectively tell the Virginia story.

We made a commitment to do everything we could to reinvest in Virginia’s economic development infrastructure to help get the state’s economy back on track and Virginians back to work.

We are pleased that, during the past two years, the General Assembly has joined us in making an investment of more than $100 million in Virginia’s economic development infrastructure.

Because of this investment and the emphasis we have placed on economic development, more people are back to work and our economy is growing. We have closed 687 economic development deals in the past two years; we have created more than 56,000 net new jobs in our state; and our unemployment rate now is 6.2 percent.

This is a good result in a tough economy, but we have a lot of work left to do. More than 260,000 Virginians still are out of work, and we will not stop focusing on economic development until every Virginian who wants a job can find a job.

This is why McDonnell and I recently announced we will ask the General Assembly to invest an additional $37 million in proven economic development and job creation programs this year.

This includes significant new investments in small business and technology initiatives — as well as agriculture, advanced manufacturing, tourism and domestic and international marketing programs.

During the past decade one of the major economic drivers in our state has been the technology industry. In fact, we pride ourselves on being the “Silicon Dominion.” It was not long ago that computer chips replaced tobacco as Virginia’s leading export.

Virginia has the second-highest concentration of technology workers in the U.S., and the backbone of the Internet runs through Virginia. We must capitalize on this strength and foster the growth of this industry.

We have made historic investments in technology during the past two years, including $10 million in the new Commonwealth Commercialization and Research Fund that the General Assembly approved in 2011. But we need to do even more if we want to remain competitive in this ever-changing sector.

One of the areas where we have not been as competitive as we would like is in the growing biotechnology and life sciences sector. This year we have asked for an additional $10 million to help create a new life sciences initiative that will coordinate work being done at our research universities with the private sector.

Biotechnology and life sciences are a perfect fit for Virginia. Our state has a world-class network of health care facilities, academic research facilities and pharmaceutical companies. We believe the bio tech and life science industries can help drive Virginia’s economy in the future, and we want to be more competitive in recruiting these companies to Virginia.

Another initiative that goes hand-in-hand with the emphasis we have placed on technology, bio technology and life sciences is providing the resources that are necessary to help support the growth of small businesses.

Seventy percent of the jobs in Virginia are small-business jobs. If we want to grow our economy, we have to do more to support small businesses and entrepreneurs.

One of the most important issues facing small businesses today is access to capital to invest in starting or growing a business. To help address this issue, we have proposed a small business investor tax credit that will allow an individual income tax credit of 10 percent for investments in qualified small businesses.

We also have proposed extending the sunset date for capital gains income tax subtractions for investments in a qualified technology or science start-up business that has a principal office or facility in Virginia. We believe that these tax credits will free up more capital for business to help with expenses such as start up costs, operations and hiring.

By doing everything we can to support these rapidly growing technology industries and other small businesses in Virginia, we will help create jobs for our citizens and better position our state to compete in the global marketplace of the 21st century.

The jobs and economic development agenda we have proposed this year is another aggressive effort to enhance our economic development infrastructure. In many ways, this is the most diverse economic development package we have proposed to date. We hope the General Assembly will join us in supporting these important proposals.

Bill Bolling is the lieutenant governor of Virginia. He also serves as the state’s Chief Jobs Creation officer.