Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling’s office issued a press release earlier in the week seeking to draw attention to the interim subcommittee reports of the “Governor’s Commission on Economic Development and Job Creation.” Most such reports are dull affairs, but can do wonders for those playing a game of buzzword bingo. This collection of reports has another, far less amusing undercurrent – the state government’s determination to meddle even more in the private sector economy.
Among the most disheartening recommendations are those that seek to push the state into areas well outside its core functions. Take tourism:
Unlike most major industries in Virginia, tourism does not enjoy tax incentives, grant programs or a dedicated funding mechanism for product development.
So the subgroup studying the tourism industry proposes to create a grant program to stimulate tourism projects that would be funded by retaining one percent “…of state and local tax revenues generated by the project and a matching developer investment.”
Sounds innocuous enough, as it wouldn’t raise taxes in general – but it would skim revenues off the top. And that’s before we start talking about tax breaks and “dedicated funding mechanisms.”
But outside the rent-seeking grasp of Virginia’s business and political elite there is still a real private sector economy and it doesn’t rely on the largesse of government handouts.
Take the humble Va. sock…
It didn’t get a lot of notice, but buried this Daniel Henninger piece on the rescue of the Chilean mine workers was a nugget worth celebrating. Of the many tools and technologies used to bring the 33 miners back to the surface, one of the more mundane (but nonetheless important) originated in Richmond:
Jeffrey Gabbay, the founder of Cupron Inc. in Richmond, Va., supplied socks made with copper fiber that consumed foot bacteria, and minimized odor and infection.
Interesting. Even more so when one considers Cupron managed to play this role in maintaining the miners’ health without a grant from the state or a sweetheart deal from a local government economic development officer.
Just imagine how many more companies like this might spring-up across Virginia if the state eliminated its BPOL and corporate income taxes…
