Mike Talks Jobs in Martinsville

On his statewide Barnstorm Tour, the Martinsville Bulletin had a chance to catch up with Mike and talk about how to stimulate the Southside economy and create jobs in the area.

Republicans who voted against a proposed expansion of state unemployment benefits and $125 million in federal stimulus funds that would have come with it drew sharp criticism Thursday from a Democratic contender for lieutenant governor.

Mike Signer, campaigning in Martinsville, said Wednesday’s 46-53 House vote defeating the expansion, which fell mainly along party lines, was “a shocking abandonment of their (Republican legislators’) duty.”

The amendments, proposed by Gov. Tim Kaine, would have qualified Virginia to receive the additional $125 million. Lawmakers who voted against them effectively were “stepping on the neck of families” they were duty-bound to help, Signer said.

“I don’t know where (incumbent Lt. Gov.) Bill Bolling is on this issue, but he’s not helping,” Signer said. He accused the Republican-controlled House of “choosing their own twisted ideology” over helping those in dire need.

In a statement issued Thursday afternoon, Bolling’s spokesman, Randy Marcus, said Bolling would like to try to work out a compromise with the governor and legislative leaders on the issue. Bolling was concerned that the costs eventually would be passed on to employers, which could lead to more job losses, Marcus said.

Signer, who hopes to win his party’s nomination to run for lieutenant governor during the June 9 primary, also unveiled a seven-step plan that he said would create at least 50,000 new jobs in Virginia by 2011. The first step, he said, would generate 20,000 new infrastructure jobs over the next two years through the creation of a “Jobs Now” task force and by bringing more federal funds to the state.

An expansion of energy efficiency would create 5,000 new jobs in the same time frame, he said, as would his plan to create 5,000 jobs by building a “Smart Grid” to transmit renewable energy through transmission lines such as those used for electricity, and advocating the development of new energy sources, such as wind and solar.

Other points of the plan include creating 5,000 health information and technology (IT) jobs using part of the $19 million in federal stimulus funds earmarked to make health records into electronic documents nationwide and building 5,000 rural jobs through tourism, rural broadband and other measures.

Signer’s plan also proposes a 5,000-job increase in military construction by kick-starting long-term reconstruction of military housing and offices.

The plan also would promote a new “Virginia GreenWorks” program to clean up and restore the state’s parks, forests, mountains, bodies of water and shores. The program would create 5,000 low-wage short-term jobs for recent college graduates by 2011.

Later Thursday at the Martinsville-Henry County Chamber of Commerce’s Legislative Lunch, Signer said he is pro-labor and supports the proposed check card, in which a plant can be unionized when workers sign cards rather than hold an election. “If the majority of workers want a union, they should be allowed to,” he added.

Signer, an Arlington native and former deputy counselor to former Gov. Mark Warner, also served as a senior strategist in U.S. Rep. Tom Perriello’s 2008 congressional campaign.

Signer holds a Ph.D. in political science from the University of California at Berkeley, a law degree from the University of Virginia and a bachelor’s degree magna cum laude from Princeton University.