General Assembly Business Impact GO Virgina’s nine regional councils Region


1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9


2015 Weldon Cooper Center population estimates


393,223 778,549 379,516


1,229,368 1,727,578 492,144


2,436,146 526,741


419,728 8,382,993


Source: Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development


and scale-up programs for small and midsize businesses. The legislation specifies that early efforts should be placed on addressing skills gaps in the workforce. Grant requests must come


from at least two localities and provide non-state funding that is at least equal to what the grants are seeking from the state. Waivers can be granted for applicants from economically distressed areas that would require projects to match only 50 percent. GO Virginia grants will be


administered from two pots of money. About $11 million will be divided among the nine regions based on population. Projects will compete against one another for another state- wide pot of $11 million. All grants will need to be approved by both the regional council and the GO Virginia board. They will be scored against a regional council’s diversification plan and evaluated on economic impact, non-state financial contributions, number of localities involved, com- patibility with existing programs and project savings anticipated. Grants may assist existing pro-


46 JUNE 2017


grams if they expand to additional localities, or they broaden their scope. Another legislative action from


2016 will encourage localities to work together to secure major investments in the commonwealth. The Virginia Collaborative Economic Develop- ment Act encourages localities to collaborate in attracting major invest- ment from companies. The law allows localities, who can show they worked jointly on attracting a project to the region, to receive up to 45 percent of personal income taxes generated from the new jobs for six years. That legislation applies to proj-


ects creating at least 200 jobs paying above the median wage for a region and a capital investment of at least $25 million. A provision in the law allows requirements to be lowered to 25 new jobs and $1 million of capital investment in cases of fiscal distress or “extraordinary economic oppor- tunity” for the localities. “That’s the first time the cities and localities have had an interest in creating jobs together,” says Wynne. “That’s why they’ve always fought over the years on who gets the property taxes.” The GO Virginia board will


determine whether the localities can receive the grants. Another related bill from 2016


created the Virginia Research Invest- ment Committee, which will oversee grants made to help commercialize research at universities. Four mem- bers of GO Virginia’s board will serve on the committee. GO Virginia is unique. When


developing the legislation, GO Virginia supporters studied smaller regional initiatives in Georgia, Indiana, Michigan and Colorado. “These states had pieces of programs that were instructive to our thinking,” says Christopher Lloyd of McGuire- Woods Consulting. “We cobbled together some good ideas from each of those and put a Virginia stamp on it.”


Already, other states are inter-


ested in Virginia’s regional approach. “This is a bottom-up approach


based on regional priorities,” says Wynne. “The beauty of this is that, for the first time, the state is asking each region to identify its priorities and then saying, ‘Ok, you are in charge of getting this done. We’ll help you, but you’re in charge.’”


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