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Economic Development

 

2013 Legislative Sesson Outcome Overview on Economic Development

Priorities:

• Maintain support for the vast array of economic investment and policy tools that enable the Commonwealth to attract and retain jobs and employers to Virginia.
• Support making Virginia’s legal system as business-friendly as possible through a series of reform bills that will provide additional economic development tools to attract and retain businesses to Virginia.

Dulles Regional Chamber had a very successful session in the economic development arena, including supporting a package of legislation that will ensure Virginia’s legal system is as business-friendly as possible. To that end, DRCC actively worked in support of a compromise that was forged between the business community and the trial attorneys that achieves the priority above and includes:

• Depositions Used in Admissions and Summary Judgment Motions – For the first time since 1973, depositions will be allowed to form the basis for summary judgment motions in a limited class of cases.  In these cases, depositions will now be allowed to knock out meritless punitive damage claims through summary judgment motions, will be allowed to form the basis for Admissions, and will help businesses defend against baseless and frivolous cases.
• Venue Reform – This change will help businesses limit lawsuits in jurisdictions that do not have any meaningful connection to the cause of action.  With the proposed change, there must be a ‘practical nexus’ – or meaningful connection – between where the lawsuit is filed and the cause of action.
• Trespassing – Trial lawyers across the country are trying to assert new duties of care against property owners including the misguided theory that landowners should owe a duty of ‘reasonable care’ to a trespasser.  Current Virginia law says that property owners owe no duty of care to trespassers except in very limited circumstances.  Legislation passed as part of the agreement will freeze current Virginia common and statutory law and preclude any changes to our common law.
• Nonsuit – The compromise on this issue addresses a recent decision that severely damaged the existing nonsuit law.  Whenever a plaintiff takes a nonsuit (a procedural motion to end the lawsuit) seven days before the trial or during the trial, the defendant is able to seek expert witness fees. The recent decision said the law only applied to the period seven days before the trial, and not the trial itself.  This legislation allows recovery of fees expended during a trial.

All in all, this is a significant step forward for business after many, many years of unsuccessful attempts to make the legal justice system more business friendly and represents a real victory for the business community and the Dulles Regiona Chamber. 

In addition, DRCC also supported a series of “Innovation and Entrepreneurship” bills and budget items in the economic development arena that were also successful this session to ensure we not only retain but continue to add “tools” to Virginia’s economic development tool box. This includes: 

• Full integration of Virginia’s one-stop system enabling that system to be the first and only stop a business will need to make when establishing a business or accomplishing tasks related to their business.
• Development and funding of a Cybersecurity Accelerator at the Center for Innovative Technology (CIT), which has combined its expertise in entrepreneurship and technology to create the nation’s first cybersecurity accelerator, modeled after the highly successful accelerator created in California.  Since 2005, Silicon Valley's Y-Combinator Accelerator is credited with creating 449 companies and securing $926 million in private investment for their development.  The CIT accelerator will focus exclusively on cybersecurity company creation and will initially produce 10 to 20 new companies per year, bolstering Virginia’s cyber assets and capabilities. The requested $2.5 million for this program was included in the approved budget.
• Funding ($50,000) for the Commonwealth Innovation and Entrepreneurship Measurement System, which will function as a tool to measure areas within the Commonwealth worthy of economic development and institutional focus to advance the Commonwealth Research and Development Strategic Roadmap. This funding was identified in the budget from existing resources.
• While the introduced legislation focused on coordination for small businesses and entrepreneurs failed to pass, language was included in the budget that accomplishes the same purpose – to direct the Department of Business Assistance (DBA); Center for Innovative Technology (CIT); Virginia Tourism Corporation (VTC); Virginia Economic Development Partnership (VEDP) to develop a marketing campaign to attract and recognize entrepreneurs, small businesses, and emerging industry businesses.
• Similarly, legislation the Partnership supported related to the creation of an Innovation and Entrepreneurship Measurement System failed to pass as well; however, language was included in the budget to authorize the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Investment Authority/Center for Innovative Technology to create this system as a tool to measure areas within the Commonwealth worthy of economic development and institutional focus to advance the Commonwealth Research and Development Strategic Roadmap.

 

2013 Policy Paper 

The Dulles Regional Chamber of Commerce (DRCC) believes Virginia should maintain a high level of financial and personnel resources to continue to enable an aggressive and comprehensive national and international marketing and outreach program that leverages the Commonwealth’s strongest economic assets, including industry sectors where Virginia possesses a clear competitive advantage.

 

DRCC encourages the General Assembly to invest fully in the various business incentive programs to encourage business investment in Virginia. DRCC supports continued funding of the Virginia Economic Development Partnership (VEDP) incentive programs, as well as maintenance of recent investments that have been made to the Governor’s Opportunity Fund, and an emphasis on policies that broaden the eligibility requirements, enabling firms in Northern Virginia that increase local tax revenues to qualify for critical economic development incentives.

 

DRCC also encourages the VEDP to continue its work to develop state incentive programs that focus on company retention and recruitment, and give greater priority within these incentive programs to encourage the creation of higher paying jobs, like those in Northern Virginia.
 
In addition to the initiatives outlined above, DRCC strongly supports efforts to ensure that Virginia’s legal system is as business-friendly as possible, which is critical to the Commonwealth’s ability to attract and retain businesses. To this end, DRCC is actively working as a member of the Virginia Alliance for Tort Reform (VATR), which is a coalition of Virginia businesses and advocacy organizations supporting pro-business reforms of Virginia’s civil justice system. DRCC supports common sense reforms which will promote fairness, efficiency, and a more favorable business climate in Virginia. During these tough economic times, Virginia must do all that it can to strengthen its business environment through increased protections and make Virginia even more attractive for economic development. 

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2012 Policy Position

The Dulles Regional Chamber of Commerce (DRCC) believes Virginia should invest additional financial and personnel resources to fund a more aggressive and comprehensive national and international marketing program that leverages the Commonwealth’s strongest economic assets, including industry sectors where Virginia possesses a clear competitive advantage.

 DRCC encourages the General Assembly to invest fully in the various business incentive programs to encourage business investment in Virginia. DRCC supports continued funding of the Virginia Economic Development Partnership (VEDP) incentive programs, as well as significant increases to the Governor’s Opportunity Fund, and an emphasis on policies that broaden the eligibility requirements, enabling firms in Northern Virginia that increase local tax revenues to qualify for critical economic development incentives. 

DRCC encourages the VEDP to develop state incentive programs that focus on company retention and recruitment, and give greater priority within these incentive programs to encourage the creation of higher paying jobs, like those in Northern Virginia. 

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2011 Policy Position

The Dulles Regional Chamber of Commerce (DRCC) believes Virginia should invest additional financial and personnel resources to fund a more aggressive and comprehensive national and international marketing program that leverages the Commonwealth’s strongest economic assets, including industry sectors where Virginia possesses a clear competitive advantage.

DRCC encourages the General Assembly to invest fully in the various business incentive programs to encourage businesses to invest in Virginia.  Furthermore, DRCC supports the continued funding of the Virginia Economic Development Partnership (VEDP) incentive programs, as well as significant increases to the Governor’s Opportunity Fund, and policies that broaden the eligibility requirements enabling those firms that increase local tax revenues to qualify for economic development incentives.

DRCC encourages the VEDP to develop state incentive programs that focus on company retention and recruitment, and give greater priority within these incentive programs to encourage the creation of higher paying jobs, like those in Northern Virginia.

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