Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 2, 1993 TAG: 9304020190
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DANIEL HOWES STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
BELL RUFFLES FEATHERS WITH DEVELOPMENT PLAN
State Sen. Brandon Bell is learning that some Roanoke Valley officials don't like surprises.Take the Roanoke County Republican's recent suggestion that valley governments consider unifying their economic development efforts. Judging by the cool reception, even derision in some quarters, you'd think he'd proposed the municipal equivalent of revolution.
He hadn't.
He just looked around.
In 1983, Martinsville City Council and the Henry County Board of Supervisors formed the Martinsville-Henry County Economic Development Corp., a regional group funded by taxpayers and devoted to industrial recruitment and business expansion.
Its philosophy: "What's good for the city is good for the county, and vice versa," says Mary Carter, Bell's former campaign manager and one of the corporation's eight directors.
Martinsville and Henry County have four appointmentseach to the corporation's board of directors, which employs an executive director to oversee its marketing and recruitment efforts.
The budget, $130,000 this year, is funded equally by city and county taxpayers - even though, according to 1990 census figures, Martinsville has 16,162 residents and Henry County 56,942.
"I sit on the board to represent the city and the county," Carter says. "I'm appointed by the county."
Bell, for his part, isn't prepared to recommend formation of a Roanoke Valley economic development corporation. Nor is he prepared to legislate an economic development authority for the valley, like the one Sen. Malfourd "Bo" Trumbo, R-Fincastle, appears on the verge of creating in the Alleghany Highlands.
Determined to staunch the loss of jobs from Covington, Clifton Forge and Alleghany County, Trumbo fashioned a bill creating a regional authority funded by new tax revenue from a planned expansion at Westvaco Corp.
The legislation would require each of the three localities to dedicate 5 percent of their machinery and tools tax receipts - most of which come from Westvaco - to the authority, creating a projected starting budget of about $350,000.
But Tuesday, Gov. Douglas Wilder proposed amending the legislation to remove Covington from the authority and to remove a condition requiring the authority to be evaluated after four years. The amendment will be considered by the General Assembly at its veto session next week. Legislators can either accept the proposed amendment or reject it and pass the bill without Wilder's signature.
The amendment "seems to me to be striking at the city of Covington," Trumbo says. "It's not doing what they wanted it to do, and if it works [Covington] can't get in."
The authority would replace the existing economic development commission, a voluntary organization that Trumbo thinks is dramatically underfunded and, consequently, ineffective.
The commission is "hamstrung because of lack of funding," he says. "They haven't had the resources to go out at a full tilt and market [the region] and provide incentives."
Trumbo's authority, dedicated to industrial recruitment and business expansion, is designed to ensure that taxpayers in one locality do not unwittingly subsidize economic development in another.
For example, if Clifton Forge's annual contribution to the authority totals $20,000 and the city wants to offer an industrial prospect $40,000 in training funds and other incentives, Alleghany County could help fund the package - so long as the deal first is approved by the Board of Supervisors.
The legislation requires the University of Virginia's Center for Public Service to study the authority's financial records after four years of operation. Should UVa conclude the authority has been ineffective, it could be disbanded. Wilder wants to strike the study requirement from the bill.