A Virginia commission designed to promote economic development in the state’s poorest areas is too large and needs better governance, according to a report released Monday.
While grants have provided southside and southwest Virginia with economic benefits in the way of investments in items like broadband development, the 31-member Tobacco Indemnification and Community Revitalization Commission is too big and needs to perform better in tracking the grant money it has allocated, according to the report from the state’s Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission.
The commission was formed by the General Assembly in 1999 to dole out hundreds of millions of dollars in a settlement from a lawsuit against cigarette manufacturers.
The report, though, cited a lack of measurable results for 89 percent of the $756 million the agency has awarded since 2000, and that it was too soon to tell about potential benefits from $372 million awarded since 2008.
“The Tobacco Commission has had a significant positive impact on Virginia’s tobacco region, but has also funded projects that have not contributed to regional revitalization,” study leader Walt Smiley told the commission at a meeting Monday in Richmond, according to the Times-Dispatch.
