Op/Ed: Looking to the Future of Southside, Southwest Virginia

On April 10, The News & Advance of Lynchburg published an editorial describing how “cold and uncaring” state Republican legislators appear for refusing federal stimulus money for expanded eligibility and benefits for the unemployed. The editorial drew a parallel to my actions in 2001 during the Tultex plant closure, saying I came across then as “distant and uncaring.”

In 2001 this description of me was put forth by partisan Democrats who sought exactly what they obtained, Southside votes for Mark Warner for governor. In 2001, the Democrats asked the voters of Southside to rebuke me by rejecting Mark Earley. While the political gambit worked then, I would like to set the record straight now before the people of Southside are misled again in this year’s race for governor.

The unemployment bill I objected to in 2001 was designed for only one group — Tultex workers.

But they were not alone in their distress. At that time of nationwide recession, other companies and industries in the Southside and the Southwest were closing plants and laying off workers, including Volvo in Pulaski County and furniture and tobacco companies.

Other regions of Virginia were also losing jobs.

There was a need for a relief program that would treat all workers equally. Working with the General Assembly we crafted an unemployment benefit extension for all Virginians including Tultex workers. I also mobilized a task force to provide job and human services to all affected workers in Virginia. Just because I cared about all distressed Virginians didn’t mean I didn’t care about Tultex workers. As governor, I couldn’t favor one unemployed worker over another, but I could help all Virginians who lost their jobs.

Unemployment benefits provide for immediate, essential needs for distressed families. My vision, however, was always for a revitalized Southside with a bright outlook for the future. As Attorney General in 1997, I didn’t join the litigation onslaught against the tobacco industry. I felt in my bones the importance of that industry to Southside families. When it became clear that national policy was going to drastically change the tobacco industry, I negotiated for Virginia to get its share of the settlement amounting to $4.1 billion. Ironically, that master settlement agreement obtaining money for Virginia was ultimately signed just after I became governor — by Attorney General Mark Earley.

As governor I used that settlement to establish the Tobacco Community Revitalization Commission and created a groundbreaking redevelopment program making sure that the settlement funds were devoted to tobacco farmers and for economic development for the Southside and Southwest. I cared about the immediate needs of the families of the Southside and Southwest but my eye was also on the future of those communities.

In 2001, my last year as governor, the average unemployment rate in Martinsville was 7.8 percent, in Henry County 5.9 percent and in Danville 7 percent. Today the unemployment rate for Martinsville is 20.8 percent, for Henry County 14.8 percent and for Danville 13.7 percent. Clearly many grants have been made by the Tobacco Community Revitalization Commission. But over the administrations of Mark Warner and Timothy M. Kaine, the tobacco settlement money has not been used to secure the economies of the Southside and Southwest as I had hoped.

Today even The News & Advance doesn’t believe the federal stimulus money should be taken with all the strings and future obligations required. They just want the Republicans to appear less “cold.”

I think the best way to demonstrate concern is to bring a better future to the Southside and Southwest. I believe we should do now what should have been done the last eight years. We should create a bold “Marshall Plan” of revitalization for the Southside and Southwest. We should get federal stimulus money for a forward-looking plan. We should add the Tobacco Revitalization Money and find good, established industries with good jobs and finance them to locate in southern Virginia.

The revitalization of the Southside and the Southwest is key to the future of Virginia and all of its citizens. The best way to care is to act.

Gilmore was the governor of Virginia from 1998 until 2002. He wrote this commentary for The News & Advance. Contact him at http://www.patriotscommittee.com or http://www.virginiapatriot.com.