Statement of Lieutenant Governor Bolling on Chief Jobs Officer Announcement

Well thanks Bob and good morning everybody.

Let me add just a couple of things to what Bob has said.

We have said throughout this campaign that the most important issue currently facing Virginia is the need to get our economy moving again and create the jobs that Virginians need to protect their financial security.

As you all know, in the past four years the unemployment rate in Virginia has increased by 130%, from 3% to 7.1%, and this is the highest prolonged rate of unemployment in more than 20 years.  As a result, there are 165,000 more Virginians unemployed today than four years ago.  Clearly, this is a significant problem and we have to do everything we can to get these Virginians back to work.

Over the past few months we have announced a series of initiatives that taken together can help get our economy moving again.

For example, our More Energy, More Jobs program would make Virginia the East Coast's energy leader and create jobs and capital investment. 

Likewise, the small business reforms that we announced a couple of weeks ago would help make Virginia the best place in America to open and run a small business, which is the backbone of our economy.

But in addition, I would remind you that we have also announced some significant reforms in higher education, that would help prepare the workforce we will need to compete in the global marketplace of the 21st century; and we'll be announcing other initiatives like these in the weeks to come.

Today, we add several more important pieces to our Jobs for Virginians program.

By investing more money in proven economic development programs, like the Governor's Economic Opportunity Fund, we can be more aggressive in competing with other states for new business, industry and jobs.

And by asking the Lieutenant Governor to serve as our state's Chief Economic Development and Job Creation Officer we can bring more focus and coordination to our job creation efforts.

During my first term as Lieutenant Governor I used my time to promote a number of special projects.  With this announcement today, we are telling the people of Virginia that in a McDonnell/Bolling administration the Lieutenant Governor's primary focus will be on creating jobs for Virginians and I'm excited about that.

Let me also say this - I'm not going to wait until November to get started.  In fact, tomorrow morning in Winchester I will be kicking of my Jobs For Virginians tour.  For the next four months I will be traveling all across our state, meeting with business leaders and talking about what we can do to help make them more successful.  This effort will continue right up until Election Day, and the things I learn from this tour will help me do a better job as Virginian's Chief Economic Development and Job Creation Officer.

But I want to talk a bit about two other important initiatives that we are announcing today.

First, we are proposing an expansion of our state's Major Business Facility Job Tax Credit.   Currently, any business creating 100 or more new or additional jobs in Virginia can claim a Job Creation Tax Credit of $1,000 per job.  For businesses located in an economically distressed area the threshold is 50 jobs.  We are proposing that these thresholds be lowers from 100 new jobs to 50 new jobs for the state as a whole, and from 50 new jobs to 25 new jobs for economically distressed areas.  This will enable more businesses to take advantage of the credit, and encourage more businesses to grow jobs in Virginia.

I would remind you that two years ago I sponsored legislation that increased access to the Governor's Economic Opportunity Fund for small economic development projects in disadvantaged areas of our state, and as a result of that legislation we have already helped create 350 new jobs and $120M in capital investment in places like Emporia, Lunenburg and Page County.  So programs like this clearly work.

Second, we Bob and I understand that we need to do more than we are currently doing to recruit new businesses to rural parts of our state.  Programs like those that I have just discussed help in that effort, but we need to do more.

Accordingly, we are today announcing that in a McDonnell/Bolling administration we will assign one Deputy Secretary of Commerce and Trade to focus on rural economic development 24/7.  We have to work harder to get businesses to locate in rural parts of our state, and having someone assigned to work on nothing but rural economic development is an important part of that effort.

Taken as a package, the various initiatives that we have announced as a part of our overall Jobs For Virginians program will help position Virginia to take full advantage of a future economic resurgence. 

Through our More Energy, More Jobs program we will make Virginia the east Coast's energy leader.

Through our small business reform package we will make Virginia the best state in America to own and manage a small business.

Through our higher education reforms we will encourage more Virginians to get a college degree and the skill they need to compete in the global marketplace of the 21st.

And by expanding proven economic development strategies and brining more focus and coordination to our economic development efforts we can be more successful in our effort to recruit new businesses and jobs to Virginia.

By doing these things we can get our economy moving again and create the jobs Virginians need to protect their financial security.  That the kind of leadership the people of Virginia want form their next Governor and Lieutenant Governor, and that's the kind of leadership Bob McDonnell and I will provide.

Thank you all very much.