THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, February 24, 1996 TAG: 9602240298
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEPHANIE STOUGHTON AND MYLENE MANGALINDAN, STAFF WRITERS
LENGTH: Medium: 61 lines
Gov. George F. Allen and his economic development leaders lashed out at the General Assembly on Friday for significantly slashing funding used to lure business to Virginia and promote tourism.
``Why are they handcuffing us?'' Allen asked at a Forward Hampton Roads Investors Luncheon at the Norfolk Waterside Marriott and Convention Center.
One of the biggest proposed cuts was to the Governor's Opportunity Virginia Fund, an incentive ``deal closer'' which offers road improvements and utility work to help lure companies to Virginia. The fund, which got $16.6 million for 1996, will get significantly less in the General Assembly's proposed state budgets.
The most severe cuts came from the House of Delegates. A joint committee of House and Senate lawmakers will negotiate a compromise. When passed by both houses, the budget goes to the governor for his approval.
The Allen administration requested $38 million for the economic opportunity fund - $18 million for next year and $20 million the following year. The House wants to cut $10 million off the top and give another $10 million of opportunity fund money to the Urban Partnership, a program designed to encourage regional cooperation between suburban and urban localities.
``The Urban Partnership is a fine idea, a fine concept,'' said Robert Skunda, Secretary of the Virginia Department of Commerce and Trade. ``There's much to be done there, but to rob, fundamentally, a good program that is working and is paying dividends to every locality in the commonwealth in order to fund the Urban Partnership is shortsighted.''
Allen said the cuts come at a time when the administration has helped create more than 150,000 jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars in corporate investment in Virginia. He said he has surpassed his campaign promise of creating more than 125,000 jobs.
In Hampton Roads, Allen's administration takes credit for helping generate 4,350 jobs and $117 million in new capital investment.
Other states are now playing catch-up with Virginia in attracting businesses, Allen said. He quoted North Carolina Gov. James B. Hunt Jr. as saying Virginia and South Carolina have won the last 30 major company expansions in which North Carolina also had been competing.
In 1995, Allen said Virginia had 2.4 percent increase in job creation. In comparison, South Carolina had 1.4 percent and North Carolina, a 1.9 percent increase.
The House version of the budget also would slash $5 million from industrial and tourism advertising programs, Skunda said. Most of that money goes into cooperative tourism programs that have benefited several Hampton Roads attractions, like Colonial Williamsburg and Busch Gardens.
State tourism money is important, but legislators had ``a very hard time balancing the budget'' this year, said Del. George Grayson, D-Williamsburg. Grayson said he'd work for more tourism funds during the next session.
``You never get 100 percent of what you want,'' said Sen. Charles R. Hawkins, R-Danville. ILLUSTRATION: Gov. George F. Allen
by CNB