Woodbridge, Va. –– Prince William County faces a growing problem: most of its residents work elsewhere.
That, says Virginia Senator George Barker (D-39, Fairfax, Prince William) has to change.
Barker spoke at a town hall meeting Saturday that drew about 25 people to the Prince William County Government Center in Woodbridge.
“Prince William does not have an industrial tax base, so the bills for more of the county services that need to be funded are passed along to homeowners,” said Barker.
The senator says more needs to be done to lure more, high-paying jobs to the county.
Barker notes that the number of unemployed in Prince William remains low, but says 50 percent of workers must commute to outside jurisdictions like Fairfax, Arlington and Washington to work jobs that support their families. More than 50 percent of workers in Prince William must commute outside the county to their jobs, one of the highest commuter rates in the commonwealth, he said.
The senator added he worked to change the Gov. Robert F. McDonnell’s Opportunity Fund to allow incentives for technology businesses after Facebook and Google chose to locate multi-million dollar data centers in neighboring North Carolina.
Both internet giants choose the state over Virginia: Facebook announced plans last year to build a $450 million facility that will employ 45 full-time workers, and Google in 2007 chose to build a $600 million facility to employ 250.
North Carolina was able to offer better tax incentives to both companies, said Barker.
He also defended a bill he supported that would place a sales tax on items purchased online.
“We are putting local businesses at a disadvantage, businesses that help make this community what it is, when we make them charge sales tax but do not enforce a similar tax for items purchased online,” said Barker.
The town hall was slated to be a joint effort by Barker and Del. Richard Anderson (R-51, Lake Ridge), but Anderson was unable to appear after being called to a family emergency.
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