Localities set legislative priorities

In the Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce’s annual legislative agenda, Joyce Waugh will convey a message to the General Assembly that will resonate soundly with most Southwest and Central Virginia localities and economic development agencies: Do no more harm.

Waugh, the group’s president, said the 2010 legislative session, which convenes Wednesday, will be a year of “defense” for most interested parties as the state’s governing body tries to cope with a looming $4 billion shortfall.

She said the chamber’s agenda is a “recognition of a tough year, perhaps the toughest” when it comes to choices about local funding levels.

Localities and economic development groups across the state will be submitting sparse legislative agendas that outline their priorities for the upcoming General Assembly session.

Agenda items range in scope and size, from requesting funding for local law enforcement, to ramping up business relocation incentives. Many of the legislative agendas are identical to last year’s.

Waugh’s group, which has about 1,400 members in the Roanoke Valley and has contributed about $2,000 equally between Democrats and Republicans since 2004, will look to push the assembly on only a few items.

Near the top of the list is transportation. Specifically, the chamber supports using state taxes generated by proposed construction of an intermodal rail yard in Elliston for transportation projects in the  Virginia Department of Transportation’s Salem district.

The group also supports the immediate reopening of 19 rest areas that were shuttered in 2009.

The Lynchburg Chamber of Commerce, feeling a similar crunch, outlined only a handful of priorities it will use as a roadmap for identifying key legislation as it arises, said the chamber’s executive director and registered lobbyist, Rex Hammond.

The group generally asked that the business community be protected “from mandated healthcare products” and that the state consider increasing Virginia’s Tuition Assistance Grant program, which assists students at private colleges and universities in the state.

More specifically, included on its list is something many other economic and local officials have touted: the creation of passenger rail service between Bristol and Lynchburg, passing through Roanoke. Transportation officials have repeatedly emphasized that the project is dependent on funding and demand.

In Blacksburg, local officials will ask for even less.

“We know that there is really no use in even addressing funding,” said Marc Verniel, the town manager. “Our message is really going to be, 'Don’t take away what we already have.’ ”

Verniel added that Blacksburg hopes to emphasize the idea of giving localities the power to generate their own funding.

“We would prefer for the state to give us the ability to raise the revenue we need to run our operations” instead of relying on state programs, he said.

Other groups are hoping that requesting non funding items from the General Assembly might bring more luck, such as those related to regulatory power and other incentive-based requests.

This marks the first year that the Roanoke Regional Partnership created an agenda. The economic development partnership was founded in 1983 and includes Botetourt, Roanoke, Alleghany and Franklin counties, and Roanoke, Salem and Vinton.

The group decided that a changing of the guard in the governor’s office represented an opportunity to push the General Assembly on funding that might help ease long-term shortfalls as well as provide opportunities to win some regulatory spats.

“Governor-elect McDonnell has made economic development a campaign issue, a platform and a priority,” said Beth Doughty, the partnership’s executive director. “So what better time, frankly, to come out in support of that and to provide that type of background that validates that policy decision?”

The group is seeking increases in funding for three of the state’s most popular business attraction tools: the Enterprise Zone Program, the Virginia Jobs Investment Program and the Governor’s Opportunity Fund.

Throughout the years, the pool of money set aside for each of those incentive programs has shrunk, leaving economic development officials struggling to attract new business. McDonnell has indicated he will double funding for the Governor’s Opportunity Fund from $20 million over two years to $40 million, despite shortfalls. That program is a deal-closing fund that provides grants to attract new businesses to Virginia.

The partnership points to an analysis by the Virginia Economic Development Partnership that found 188 projects that have received certain incentives since fiscal 2002 have generated a net state revenue of $1 billion.

City Manager Kimball Payne said Lynchburg is most concerned about what he refers to as “state-mandated but locally delivered services. “The city, therefore, has chosen to concentrate its legislative priorities on two of what it considers highly threatened areas: law enforcement and education.

In Roanoke County, officials are seeking greater leeway in setting local taxes via a request related to community development agencies. CDAs are similar to existing economic development authorities and can issue tax-exempt bonds to finance such public improvements as roads, water systems and parking garages.

Jim Smith, the owner of the recently rebranded Slate Hill development off U.S. 220 — now called South Peak — said the construction hold-up is related to hashing out the details for a CDA to finance and oversee public infrastructure improvements to the site.

“In all honestly, yes, I think we are playing defense. And the impacts of General Assembly budget decreases on localities will definitely be the determining factor of what we spend our time on,” Roanoke County attorney Paul Mahoney said. “Having said that, you don’t want to ignore other opportunities.”



CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE
Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce: (540) 983-0700, roanokechamber.org
Lynchburg Regional Chamber of Commerce: (434) 845-5968, www.lynchburgchamber.org
Roanoke Regional Partnership: (540) 343-1550, www.roanoke.org