To the Editor:
My name is Alison Neary and I am a rising sophomore at Virginia Tech. Growing up in a Navy family, we moved multiple times in Virginia, so I have experienced living in various parts of this great state, from Northern Virginia, to Stafford, to Virginia Beach, and now Blacksburg. Living in all of these places has made me fall in love with these different locations in Virginia, each with their own charm. All of the time I have spent here has made me wish to continue to reside here for my days after graduating college.
Governor Bob McDonnell has recently signed six bills to make Virginia a more competitive state in creating and retaining high-tech jobs. This is music to my ears, and the ears of my classmates at Virginia Tech, as we will be heading into the workforce in the coming years. Already, it can be difficult to find even a summer job in the current economy, so my hope is that more jobs will be available with these new bills, as I leave college with my degree in hand.
The new bills expand a data center sales tax exemption, encourage investment in technology startups and extend the Virginia telework tax credit. Following the signing of these bills, Governor McDonnell cut the ribbon for the new corporate headquarters of Acentia, which will be moving from Silver Spring, Md., to Falls Church in January. This project is expected to create 60 new jobs in the region. As more companies take advantage of these new bills, the number of new jobs can only continue to grow, opening up more jobs for recent college graduates.
Technology is here to stay. It has become intertwined in many of our everyday activities and business practices. The Governor’s new bills are catering to the needs of technology’s development in our state to create jobs for the future. I applaud the Governor for signing bills to help create more jobs that can be taken by college graduates. There is hope that I could settle down with a job after college, here in Virginia.
Alison Neary
Burke