Wilson H. Flohr, Jr. was executive vice president and general manager at Kings Dominion from 1984 to 1998; former president and CEO of Richmond Region 2007; and CEO of Richmond 2015, the group charged with producing the UCI Road World Championships cycling event here. He currently serves as the COE of GROW Capital Jobs Foundation, which is the support organization for Region 4 of GO Virginia, a statewide initiative to improve the Commonwealth’s economy by increasing the number of high paying, private sector jobs. Higher paying jobs are a leading indicator of overall business growth and development.
GO Virginia was launched by the Virginia Business Higher Education Council and the Council on Virginia’s Future. It is a broad, bipartisan, grassroots coalition that includes business, higher education, and community leaders—thousands of Virginians—from every part of the Commonwealth. This concept is endorsed by the Governor and leading business organizations, and approved with bipartisan support in the General Assembly.
GO Virginia grew out of the recession that started in late 2007; it was triggered by the collapse of the housing market nationwide, but our Commonwealth was hit harder than most states because of its impact on the federal government. Sequestration—military and domestic spending—cuts highlighted the state’s over-reliance on federal spending. Instead of being one of the last states to go into a recession and one of the first to come out of one, the situation was reversed. Virginia was an early victim, and key regions took longer to recover.
Clearly, our Commonwealth must diversify its economy by growing private sector jobs so it is not so dependent on the federal government payrolls and contracts.
GO Virginia’s mission: Create more higher paying jobs through incentivized collaboration, primarily through out-of-state revenue, which diversifies and strengthens the economy in every region.
These incentives will come out from new state revenues created by GO Virginia’s efforts. No existing state taxes or tax increases will be required. And, instead of offering incentives to companies to locate new businesses in Virginia—traditional economic development—GO Virginia will offer incentives to our localities to collaborate to make their region more attractive for businesses offering high paying jobs.
Why only focus on high-paying jobs? More high paying jobs will lift average salaries in localities, regions and statewide. High paying jobs tend to create additional good paying jobs through a strong economic multiplier effect. Many of the possible projects will likely be focused on incentives for Virginians to upgrade their jobs skills for better paying jobs.