Virginia is a great place to do business! Our Commonwealth has been recognized as the “Best State for Business in America” (Forbes.com) for the last three years straight. Last year, Governing Magazine named Virginia the “Top Performing State Government in America”, and in 2007, Education Week called us the “state where a child will most likely have a successful life”. We have also been recognized by the Pew Center as one of four states effectively dealing with the national recession (February, 2009). Accolades for our business climate are not new, but we have added another one recently: U.S. News & World Report has recognized Virginia as one of the “Five Best States to Start a Business” with low taxes and a “highly educated workforce and technological sophistication”.  Much of that well deserved praise comes to us from the economic engine of northern Virginia – right here in the 34th district. We are a technology hub, a government and defense industry center, and a natural destination for hospitality businesses. To address the current economic climate and position ourselves for the recovery, we want to preserve our status as the best state to do business. Along with keeping taxes low and looking for ways to create incentives instead of regulations, we should:

• Support new technologies and green industries to bring new, sustainable jobs to northern Virginia and throughout the state. Last session the legislature passed a bill that I co-sponsored to provide a biotech industry angel investor tax credit and tie it to partnerships with our research universities. Virginia can be a national leader in green and renewable energy development. We can expand our own prosperity and lift some of our economically depressed areas with biofuel development, waste to energy technologies, and the fabrication for alternative and renewable energy equipment. The Washington Airports Task Force is committed to looking for ways to develop more efficient, less polluting  jet fuel; we should be partners with them.

• Help transform Tysons Corner into a vibrant urban center. Now that funding for rail transportation to Dulles Airport has been approved and construction is underway, we have an opportunity to bring connectivity and more coherence to Tysons Corner. In the future, it should be a destination that includes housing along with shops and businesses, is pedestrian friendly, and reduces the need for so many single occupant automobiles.

• Make Virginia a magnet for innovation and entrepreneurship. Develop partnerships with our schools and other businesses to entice creative, inventive people to come here with their ideas. We have great universities including our own George Mason and our Northern Virginia Community College system right here in northern Virginia too. We should promote their programs to seek out the next generation of creative entrepreneurs among us.