Deeds focuses on small businesses

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Creigh Deeds returned fire Friday during a series of Shenandoah Valley campaign stops, countering Republican television ads depicting him as a free spender.

“Bob McDonnell and the Republican Party are just playing politics,’’ said Deeds, a state senator from Bath County, referring to the GOP’s gubernatorial pick.

Deeds spent the early morning at Black Dog Bikes in Staunton and a portion of the afternoon touring small businesses on Main Street in Waynesboro.

“I learn something different every day,”  he said of his discussions with small business owners.

After his Waynesboro stops, Deeds said he learned from the success story of Blue Moon Galleries, a Main Street business that relies heavily on Internet sales.

A small business plan Deeds put together six weeks ago calls for providing tax credits for small businesses.

The tax credits would be offered for creating new jobs and to offset an increase in federal payroll taxes small businesses pay for adding jobs.

Deeds also wants to increase state contracts for small, women and minority-owned businesses and offer incentives for small businesses to pool together to provide low-cost insurance.

The challenges for Virginia businesses vary widely, Deeds said.

In Northern Virginia, Deeds said there are small Asian and Latino businesses attempting to survive.

“Until we are the best state for every Virginian we have a lot of work to do,’’ said Deeds, who also wants to order performance audits of all Virginia agencies at least once a decade.

“Those states who have done it have saved 1 percent to 6 percent,’’ said Deeds.

In addition, Deeds plans to mandate that agencies justify their spending with zero-based budgeting.

Deeds’ plans to make Virginia a more cost-effective state are a means to counter a Republican television ad that depicts him as a free-spender, said James Madison University political scientist Bob Roberts.

“The Republican Party is saying the state is not living within its means,’’ Roberts said.

Roberts also said Deeds’ small business plans are aimed at alleviating unemployment.

He said the Deeds approach is a micro way to cut into the state’s unemployment, while McDonnell wants to provide jobs by making Virginia the energy capital of the East Coast.

Deeds defends the budget amendments the Republicans are criticizing him for. Those include getting state troopers overtime pay and increasing state teachers’ salaries to the national average.

Deeds told the crowd at the opening of the Waynesboro Democratic headquarters that the November election is not about the candidates.

“It’s about you, your children and about the future,’’ he said.

The candidate said he wants to build on the success of current Gov. Timothy M. Kaine and former Gov. Mark Warner.

Kaine has provided a steadily more convenient target for Republicans as he battles a budget gap of $1.5 billion, fed, in part, by overly optimistic revenue projections.