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Tuesday,
October 30, 2007
By Dan
Kegley
Del. Bill Carrico (R-5th) is looking forward “to
two weeks from now,” when the Nov. 6 election will be over and the voters will
have decided whether to send him back to Richmond
for a fourth term. Seeking re-election on top of the duties of the office has
made for a hectic spring, summer and fall.
“It’s been busy going around to speaking engagements, door to door, and keeping
other things going,” Carrico said Monday.
Carrico said he is proud of and humbled by having “a lot of support from the
General Assembly,” and counts first among accomplishments the recent ground
breaking for a prison in Grayson
County, bringing 350
jobs. The prison will also anchor a water project in that county for which the
Virginia Tobacco Indemnification and Community Revitalization Commission has
provided a $2.5 million appropriation, he said.
“We’re waiting for them to make the final announcement,” Carrico said.
“When I took office six years ago, there were several things needed in the
economy and I think we’ve done a good job with expansions at Utility Trailer,
General Dynamics, and that’s great news from Wellborn,” he said.
Wellborn Cabinets expanded its operation from Alabama to Atkins in March with 40 workers
and a plan to hire as many as 100 making the company’s upscale line of
cabinets. More recently, however, Marion’s General Dynamics Armanent and
Technical Products trimmed 45 positions as part of lean manufacturing efforts,
a term meaning reducing labor, investment costs and manufacturing site size to
lower production overhead.
Carrico is also proud of his methamphetamine legislation he said curbed
production and use with harsher penalities, and for his supporting role in
getting American Electric Power to rescind a rate hike.
“People were willing to sign petitions,” he said. “Without their help, I could
do nothing.” He said he was just the spokesman for the coalition of elected
officials that crossed party lines to achieve the rate reduction.
One of Carrico’s goals is to “bring jobs for all educational levels,” he said.
“That’s what I focused on and will continue to focus on” through his four-point
plan. The plan involves development of infrastructure, “water, sewer and
broadband;” business expansions; new business development like the prison, the
Gatorade and Pepsi plants in Wytheville; and keeping taxes low on businesses
that he called “the backbone of the economy.”
Strong businesses, he said, in turn help with health care by providing health
insurance for employees. “Health care has been a focus of mine,” he said. “I’ve
worked with Senator [William] Wampler to ensure the region continues to have
Pharmacy Connection,” a program he said eliminates for the uninsured elderly
the need to choose between buying medicine and buying food.
Carrico said he is a “big supporter” of importation of prescription drugs from Canada, where they often are available at lower
cost than in the U.S.
“Other states have successfully done this and got FDA approval,” he said.
If Carrico gets his way, illegal aliens will not go to school on the taxpayer’s
dime. “I intend to introduce legislation this year saying if you’re not here
legally, you won’t get in-state tuition at state universities,” he said. “Each
one will take the slot of a taxpaying student. You must legally prove you’re a
citizen.”
He will also support deportation of illegal aliens committing crimes here,
saving taxpayers the cost of their prosecution and detention.
Asked whether he wished any legislation could have had a different outcome, he
said the “most pressing thing I wish we could have done, but I don’t know what
we could have done,” was re-amending the so-called abuser fee law imposing
ongoing fines for Virginians violating the speed limit by 15 miles per hour.
The original legislation, he said, “applied to everyone. When it came down with
the governor’s amendments, it applied only to Virginians. I agree with the
people that it’s not fair.”
Carrico said the bill had other parts that were beneficial, and denying the governor
his amendment would kill the bill. But it’s not a dead issue. “In January we’ll
have a second chance to put the law back into its original form,” he said. “I
will vote to repeal it otherwise.”
In a new term, Carrico said, he would focus on “keeping the economy going with
the shortfall” while preserving “core services” – education, transportation,
public safety and health care.
The state’s “$641 million shortfall, a lot of it is from inaccurate
calculations of revenues,” he said. “We’ll focus on what they’ll be with
accurate calculations.” He said $170 million in unspent revenues can help
offset the shortfall.
“I’m optimistic we can do this without any major cuts to new programs,” he
said.
Another concern is what Carrico sees as a coming fight over Second Amendment
protections for gun owners in the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings in April.
“I think we’re probably going to see a lot of legislation by antigun people to
restrict gun rights,” Carrico, a former Virginia State Police trooper, said. “No
matter what laws you pass, nothing would have stopped what happened that day.”
Restrict gun ownership, and “you take away the right to protect yourself,” he
said. “My commitment has always been to protect Second Amendment rights.”
From the other side, Carrico expects gun issue observers will be proven right
in their prediction that The Roanoke Times unwittingly pushed the state toward
closing the Concealed Carry Permit database by publishing it on the paper’s Web
site last spring, ironically as a Freedom of Information Act exercise.
“There was a tremendous outcry over that,” Carrico said. He said many people
got concealed carry permits after leaving domestic abuse situations, “and
publishing that list just told everybody where those people live. Their attackers
can find out where they are.”
Carrico said he also supports closure of lists of hunting and boating permit
holders. “If someone wants to know who has guns they could go steal, all they
have to do it look it up. It’s public record.”
Proponents of public hunting license and concealed carry databases say the
information is available in any courthouse, but that’s the last place, others
counter, a criminal will go to find it.
Carrico said it remains to be seen how much of a challenge his opponent, Susie
Dixon Garner, presents. He said in his campaigning, he’s seen that “people are
satisfied with the work we’ve done. Unless you give people a reason to change,
they’ll support you.”
He was complimentary of Garner, but uncertain of her key issues. “She has
worked really hard and put forth great effort to meet people. I don’t know what
her platform is. She talks about needing to do more. I never take opponents
lightly. I won’t take anything away from her. She’s worked hard. Any time you
step up to the challenge, it’s to be commended.”
The element of uncertainly is another reason the delegate looks forward to the
passage of the next two weeks. “That’s the thing about elections. You never
know until the day of the election how well you’ve done.”
The Fifth District includes only part of Smyth County.
Voters at polling places in Seven Mile Ford, Rich
Valley, East
Park, West Park,
Atkins, Wassona, Royal Oak East, Royal Oak West, Adwolfe and Sugar Grove will
vote in the Carrico/Dixon race.
http://www.swvatoday.com/comments/5th_district_race_incumbent_focuses_on_job_growth/news/1019/
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