McDonnell Wants Jobs Panel’s Recommendations in October

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Gov. Bob McDonnell told the first meeting of his Economic Development and Jobs Creation Commission yesterday that he wants the commission to make recommendations to him by Oct. 16.

Those recommendations will form the basis of a legislative agenda he will propose to the 2011 session of the General Assembly, he said.

Jobs creation "is the top issue in our state; it's what I ran on," McDonnell told reporters after the meeting. "I'm going to be personally invested in the results of this commission."

The 64 businesspeople, lobbyists and legislators gathered around tables in the reading room of the Patrick Henry Building for the first of three meetings, presided over by Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, McDonnell's appointee as the chief jobs-creation officer.

Between the three formal meetings of the commission, the members will break down into nine subcommittees to study ways to create jobs in such areas as energy, manufacturing, tourism and economically distressed communities.

McDonnell was late to the meeting, returning from a previously scheduled trip to the Eastern Shore.

McDonnell symbolically signed 17 bills adopted by the General Assembly to aid jobs creation. The laws will take effect July 1.

Robert C. Sledd, McDonnell's senior economic adviser and a co-chairman, with Bolling, of the commission, said Virginia has a deserved reputation as one of the nation's top states for business, but that the state had become complacent under the two previous administrations.

State funding for economic development slipped under Govs. Mark R. Warner and Timothy M. Kaine, he said.

In an economic briefing, J. Alfred Broaddus Jr., retired president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, said the economy is pulling out of the recession but that jobs recovery is going to be slow and the national unemployment rate likely will remain around 9 percent for the rest of this year.

Broaddus said the Federal Reserve contributed to the recession by keeping interest rates too low. The federal government contributed by encouraging mortgage lending to high-risk borrowers, he said.

SOURCE: Richmond Times-Dispatch