HD28 - From the Grassroots: Final Report of the Rural Virginia Prosperity Commission


Executive Summary:
From Galax to Fairfax, from Monterey to the Chesapeake Bay, from St. Charles to Cape Charles, the goal of the Rural Virginia Prosperity Commission is economic opportunity for all Virginians. No one who is willing to work should be left behind if it is in the power of public policy to prevent it. The Commonwealth cannot make any community prosperous. But it can help communities gain access to the tools of the new economy so that they can make their own prosperity. It can also help people learn to use those tools to realize their visions and dreams.

The new economy thrives on the critical mass of economic activities characteristic of urban centers, not rural areas. Consequently, the disparity in incomes and economic opportunity between rural and urban/suburban Virginia is widening. Rural youth, particularly the brightest, whether well or poorly educated, leave home for better opportunities in the urban economy. The spiral of decline is unyielding-tax bases erode, incomes decline, leadership despairs, school spending is reduced, civic life and leadership suffer, and even more youth leave. Because Virginia shares a common wealth, the assistance to communities unable to pay their own way for public education and other services becomes a drain on the state budget and an impediment to solving problems in other parts of the state.

The Rural Virginia Prosperity Commission was created by the Virginia General Assembly in January, 2000 (House Joint Resolution 129 and Senate Joint Resolution 140, Appendix A). The legislation establishing the 18-member Commission instructed it to "undertake a detailed analysis of rural Virginia economies and recommend flexible but targeted state policies which, combined with local efforts, will help foster sustainable economic growth in Virginia's rural areas."

This report details the findings of the Commission, outlines its vision for rural Virginia, and offers a broad strategy for economic prosperity in rural Virginia. The report also contains a set of focused recommendations for strategic investments by the Commonwealth to facilitate economic prosperity in rural Virginia. No attempt is made to define what prosperity means for rural Virginia: each community must undertake this task for itself. The Commission's recommendations deal with those things that the Commonwealth can and should do to improve the chances for success from a variety of approaches to prosperity that will have to come from the grassroots.

The recommendations the Commission offers are a package -- no single recommendation alone is likely to be a silver bullet. The problems are too complex to be solved with simple solutions. Yet if all of the recommendations are implemented, the odds for success are very promising. It will take time to turn things around. The Commission is confident that given effective implementation of the entire package and some patience, these recommendations can provide a new and bright economic future not just for rural Virginia but for everyone in the Commonwealth.

The recommendations address six strategic needs for prosperity in rural Virginia:

1. Capital Access: No place can prosper without entrepreneurs, and entrepreneurs require access to capital. Ways are needed to make more credit available to rural entrepreneurs who have good ideas but little collateral. The capital access program Virginia already has in place needs to be expanded to reach rural areas.

2. Workforce Training and Adult Education: Rural Virginia suffers from having too many adults without high school diplomas and with inadequate opportunities for customized worker training and retraining. Without a high school diploma or GED, workforce training may be of little value. The community college system must be made a partner in a major effort to upgrade the human capital in rural Virginia.

3. Digital Telecommunications Infrastructure: For understandable economic reasons, the private sector has been slow to provide high-speed, broadband digital telecommunications access to much of rural Virginia. Returns on investment are much higher if they are made in or between urban centers. Yet without such access, rural communities have no possibility of overcoming the disadvantages of remoteness. Public/private partnerships are needed to ensure that rural Virginia is not left behind in acquiring access to digital telecommunication opportunities.

4. Tiered Incentives for Investment in Lagging Rural Areas: Several neighboring states provide tiered tax incentives aimed at offsetting some of the inherent disadvantages of being remote and lacking the critical mass needed to sustain economic growth. A tiered incentive program, tailored to Virginia's needs, is essential for communities in rural Virginia to compete successfully with places in neighboring states.

5. Long-Term Institutional Support: Local grassroots leadership in rural Virginia must be enhanced and nourished. A focal point for rural concerns must be established through new public/private sector partners in the form of a Center for Rural Virginia.

6. Create a cabinet-level Secretary of Agriculture: Virginia is one of few states that does not have a cabinet-level secretary of agriculture. A prosperous agriculture will not be enough to assure a prosperous rural Virginia. Yet a prosperous and innovative agriculture is important for economic health in rural Virginia, and achieving such requires that agriculture be represented at the highest levels of the executive branch of the Commonwealth government.

Recommendations for three other areas have been proposed: infrastructure (Appendix C, Exhibit A), K-12 education (Appendix C, Exhibit B), and primary industries (Appendix C, Exhibit C). They have not been detailed in the six recommendations because they have existing advocacy support and because they are better handled through the Center for Rural Virginia than as individual recommendations. However, they are included in the report of the Commission. Many of the recommendations are related to on-going and longer-term research than the Commission can currently provide.

The Rural Virginia Prosperity Commission offers specific proposals to address each of the six strategic needs. The proposals are based on the premise that rural prosperity must be achieved from the grassroots. Each community must define for itself what prosperity means and take positive steps to achieve its goals. The recommendations offered are intended to empower community leaders to achieve rural prosperity in their own ways.