It was an honor to introduce Virginia Beach Mayor Will Sessoms for his the “State of the City” address today. Through the years I’ve enjoyed working with Will Sessoms for the people of Virginia Beach and the Hampton Roads region. When I was Governor, Will was an up-and-coming member of the Virginia Beach City Council. When we were letting the world know that Virginia Is Open for Business! and adding over 300,000 net new private-sector jobs, it helped to have local leaders like Will, who comes from the private-sector and understands what businesses need. Economic development is a team effort.
It was important in convincing companies like GEICO and Stihl to locate their offices and expand operations in Virginia Beach. With Will’s leadership, Geico and Stihl are still going strong, with Stihl announcing plans to expand and create more new jobs in Virginia Beach. We also worked together against BRAC efforts to move the East Coast Master jet base from Oceana, and hope to work with the Mayor and the people of the Hampton Roads region to logically keep Oceana and the many essential military assets in Virginia ensuring a strong, efficient national defense.
Mayor Sessoms is sending the message loud and clear that Virginia Beach is Open for Business and Tourism! Under his leadership, Virginia Beach is adding jobs and tourism is increasing, even in a tough economy. Today Virginia Beach has some of the top-ranked schools in our State and our nation, a AAA Bond Rating and The Wall Street Journal just named it the “best-run city” in America!
In Suffolk I spoke with Veterans from the South Hampton Roads area at a forum at VFW Post 9382 about their concerns. Many Veterans I heard from brought up impending fee and premium increases in TRICARE being proposed by President Obama, which would have a harmful impact on Veterans and military families forced to pay higher costs for health care. I believe it’s wrong for Washington to place its budgetary burden on the backs of active duty military families and Veterans because of their inability to set priorities, and I will fight to make sure that America keeps her promises to our nation’s Veterans and their families for the benefits they have earned.
Energy security and the high prices of fuel was another major concern. These veterans recognize that energy is a matter of national security and America need not remain vulnerable to hostile regimes for oil. It’s time that we take control of our destiny and unleash our American energy resources to reduce the cost of fuel and food,create thousands of new, good-paying jobs, increase our supply of affordable energy, make us less vulnerable to hostile regimes, keep our money here in the U.S.A. and Virginia could use the royalties for roads and transportation from off shore production.
