RICHMOND — Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced plans for an economic development initiative in Southwest Virginia, a region still struggling with the loss of the coal industry and where Democratic House Speaker Don L. Scott Jr. (Portsmouth) has also mounted a new push to address lingering problems.
Youngkin unveiled his “Accelerate Southwest Virginia” initiativelast week at an economic forum at the University of Virginia’s College at Wise. Though he was short on specific policy offerings, Youngkin touted a list of state-funded improvement projects related to transportation, education and health care, then announced a new $10 million small-business loan fund targeting the area through the Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission.
The commission was formed in 1999 to award economic development grants and loans in parts of the state that once benefited from the tobacco industry, using money from the national settlement with tobacco manufacturers over smoking-related health-care costs.
“I believe that we need to go faster and we need to accomplish more” in Southwest Virginia, Youngkin told the audience atthe forum. His initiative is “all about locking arms. This is all about focus, and this is about results.”
Scott, meanwhile, created a temporary, bipartisan legislative committee during this year’s General Assembly session and tasked it with recommending solutions to the lack of health care in rural communities, such as Southwest Virginia. The committee held its first meetings at the end of April and early May in Tazewell County, near Wise, and plans to tour health-care facilities in other rural parts of the state before recommending legislative solutions next year.
The Washington Post
