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The
December
9, 2002
,
edition of Bacon’s Rebellion critiqued the Warner
administration’s new strategic plan for economic
development. (See Sinking
Expectations.) Reader response
can best
be described as cranky and disagreeable – and
that’s for people willing to go on the record. But
at least one scribe blames the Republicans.
Promote
Manufacturing, not Tourism
Great
piece, but please remember, government doesn't
create wealth or revenue, other than by force. Nor
can it spend its way into prosperity on the back of
the taxpayer.
In
Virginia Beach,
the per capita income last year for the tourism
sector was $15K. The net to the city from tourism
was $16.1 million. The city's current budget is
$1.23 billion for a population slightly over
426,000. Rather excessive don't you think?
Would
I take a manufacturing center with an average income
of $40K over a new hotel for tourists? You bet I
would.
Manufacturing
products to be shipped around the world, with the
payroll being spent in Virginia,
is the ultimate way to go.
Robert
K. Dean
Communications
Director
Hampton
Roads Taxpayer Alliance
Ax
the Tax Coalition
robertkdean@cox.net
Promote
Small Business, Don’t Cut It
Two weeks before the [economic development
strategic] plan was unveiled, the Department of
Business Assistance announced it was cutting all
state funding and all support for the state’s
Small Business Development Centers. The
small-business sector accounts for most of Virginia’s
net new job creation – over 90 percent, if my
memory is correct -- and the SBDCs are the primary
source of assistance for people starting and growing
small businesses.
Dr. Jerry Kopf
Economic Development Officer
Radford University
Email: jkopf@radford.edu
You Can Write off
Manufacturing – thanks to Republicans
I
read your article on the Governor's plan to
revitalize the rural areas. As a 32-year alum of Virginia's
manufacturing sector, now located in CT, I want to
suggest to you that when we become a third world
country is the time we will be able to attract
manufacturing again.
This
is the gift of the Republican fundamentalists and a
sympathizer I wouldn't have expected, Bill Clinton.
I have absolutely no respect for the Republicans,
the scum who gave us Reconstruction. So continue to
slap Gilmore on the back. The man is out of touch.
No
Car Tax! See what it gets you. Now Dubya is planning
more tax relief! Another Reaganite who doesn't get
it!!!
Ray
Cash
Lynchburg
rcash@centralva.net
In
a December 9 column, Workforce
Redux, Doug Koelemay examined ways to reform the
state's system for workforce training. He sparked this response:
Don't
Forget the Career Schools!
I
read and thoroughly enjoyed your recent comments on
workforce training in Virginia. I would like to
correct some of your comments regarding the
Advantage Virginia Scholarship Program.
You,
like most commentators on the subject of workforce
training, are always looking for ways to broaden the
scope and increase the effectiveness of the state's
workforce development programs. Yet you and others
continue to simply omit, as if they didn't exist, Virginia's privately capitalized post-secondary
institutions.
Your
comments on AVIP suggest that only students
attending community colleges and public universities
can tap into these funds, when and if they become
available. But since we worked together on Del.
Scott's bill creating this program, you will recall
that students attending our career colleges are also
eligible. And when you add up the students receiving
career training at our institutions (like Strayer
Phoenix, ECPI, National
Business
College, etc.) it becomes readily obvious that we represent
one the largest workforce training resources in the
state.
Add
to that fact graduation and placement rates that no
other sector can come close too, it becomes very
difficult to understand why you and others always
leave us out. In the future, please don't. It is
time to recognize the 40,000 students in Virginia
who attend our institutions, complete their studies
on time, and find related employment in Virginia -
all without costing Virginia's taxpayers one red
cent!
Mark
Singer
Executive Director
Virginia
Career
College
Association
marksinger@att.net
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