Two Virginia legislators criticize Gilmore

By TYLER WHITLEY
RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH
Published: July 30, 2008

Two Southside Virginia legislators criticized former Gov. Jim Gilmore yesterday for vetoing a bill that would have improved benefits for thousands of workers who lost their jobs when a major textile plant closed.

Campaigning in Southside Virginia, Gilmore replied that the bill in question would have benefited only one set of workers and would have been unfair to unemployed workers in other parts of the state.

In a conference call with reporters, Del. Ward L. Armstrong, D-Henry, said Gilmore’s “Working Families Tour” through Southside is an insult to working families because of the 2000 veto.

Armstrong, who is leader of the House of Delegates’ Democrats, and state Sen. W. Roscoe Reynolds, D-Henry, are supporting former Gov. Mark R. Warner against Gilmore in the U.S. Senate race. Warner, a Democrat who was governor from 2002 to 2006, and Gilmore, a Republican who was governor from 1998 to 2002, are competing for the seat held by Republican Sen. John W. Warner, who is retiring.

When the sweatshirt maker Tultex Corp. closed in 2000 because of foreign competition, Armstrong and Reynolds proposed a bill that would increase jobless benefits to pay for health insurance for 3,300 workers who lost their jobs. Gilmore vetoed the bill, saying it would obligate future governments to help displaced workers all over the state.

Armstrong said that if Hurricane Katrina had struck Virginia Beach, the rest of the state wouldn’t have hesitated to help it out.

By contrast, Warner sent state, local and other workers to Fieldale when the Pillowtex plant closed in 2003, putting 1,000 people out of work, Reynolds said. Warner secured federal job retraining funds and other federal programs to help the workers.

In a phone interview, Gilmore said he was able to get unemployed insurance benefits increased by 20 percent for all unemployed people while he was governor and that more jobs were created in the Martinsville area than had been lost by the plant closing. He said the Virginia Tobacco Indemnification and Community Revitalization Commission, which provides funding for industry and other uses, was created during his administration.

If Warner was interested in helping people, he would not have allowed payday lending to become legal in Virginia while he was governor and would not be opposed to drilling for oil in the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge, Gilmore said.

Contact Tyler Whitley at (804) 649-6780 or .