JOBS, ECONOMY & BUSINESS

In the 1990’s I was one of three delegates who opposed a $145 million give away to build an interchange for the previously proposed Disney Company history theme park near I-66.  The interchange had never been planned by  VDOT.   Disney later dropped the project.  (Kings Dominion and Bush Gardens paid for their own Interstate interchanges.)  I believe all businesses, big and small, should receive equal treatment from the state; no special “corporate welfare” privileges for big businesses.  (Small businesses provide most of the jobs to our citizens.)

Forbes Magazine supported my study of Cyber Attacks on Financial Institutions and ways to ensure stable currency.

Bob Marshall’s HB 122 (2006)  which became law, provides that Virginia Small, Woman-owned and Minority businesses be given bidding preference for state contracts over SWAM’s from other states which do not treat Virginia businesses equally.  My legislation also streamlined the written application process and cut red tape allowing companies doing business with Virginia state and local agencies to not be required to fill out multiple certifications to bid on state/local contracts.  Once a company is qualified to do business in one jurisdiction, the company is qualified to do business in any other.  My legislation saved businesses time, paperwork, and costs associated with doing businesses with the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Since 1974, Virginia Law has prohibited private employers not covered by the federal Fair Labor Standards Act from discriminating on the basis of sex, when doing the same job under similar working conditions, except for seniority, merit system, productivity, or non-sex differences.

The Virginia Human Rights Act provides that conduct which violates any Virginia or federal statute or regulation governing discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions, age, marital status, or disability shall be an “unlawful discriminatory practice”

Title VII of the federal Civil Rights Act prohibits employers with 15 or more employees from sex discrimination in areas of advertising, recruiting, hiring, promotion, compensation, benefits administration, and termination.  A sex discrimination suit may be brought under both Virginia and federal law.

Delegate Marshall’s HB 1157  (2002) became law.  It provided $33,333 in funding to the Flory Small Business Development Center, Inc. to reimburse the Center for small business counseling, training and other services it provided to the Virginia Small Business Development Center program of the Virginia Department of Business Assistance for 1999.