Release from the W.Va. House of Delegates:
CHARLESTON, W.Va. – House Speaker Roger Hanshaw, R-Clay, Friday issued the following statement after passage by the House of Delegates of House Bill 4001, which creates the West Virginia Impact Fund.
“I want to thank my fellow delegates in the House for their consideration, hard work and passage of this bill,” Speaker Hanshaw said. “This is an innovative concept and an area of law not regularly addressed by the Legislature, so I thank my colleagues – on both sides of the aisle – for their efforts on this.
“I truly believe this bill will use free-market, capitalist principles to revolutionize how we advance economic development in our state,” Speaker Hanshaw said. “We’ve all talked for years about the need to diversify our state’s economy to promote long-term growth, and I believe this bill will help accomplish that.
“Unlike efforts of the past, this bill is not about picking economic winners and losers, or using taxpayer dollars and special tax incentives to lure potential new business,” Speaker Hanshaw said. “Instead, this bill leverages the power of the capital that’s already out there waiting for investment – and there are literally trillions of dollars around the world looking for potential investment – and creates a vehicle for our state to capture it and put it to work creating jobs in West Virginia.”
The Mountaineer Impact Office created by the bill is charged with identifying potential large-scale West Virginia business projects that need more than $25 million in capital and would benefit from additional investors. The Impact Fund would receive capital investment dollars – be it from private investors, investment firms or sovereign wealth funds – and invest them in these projects, creating new jobs for West Virginians while also producing an investment return for fund investors.
“One of the biggest challenges we have for creating businesses in our state is access to capital,” Speaker Hanshaw said. “Remember, we are a state of just 1.8 million people – smaller than many cities across the country. As a result, we must look outside our borders to find the capital that can power large-scale job creation and business development. We simply can’t use our own private resources to do it, and using direct investment of taxpayer dollars is not a viable option. This bill, and the creation of the Mountaineer Impact Office, will help our state attract the outside capital that can be used to fund new business startups and investment ideas that can revolutionize the future economy of our state.”
The bill was sponsored by Speaker Hanshaw along with Delegates John Mandt, R-Cabell; Martin “Rick” Atkinson, R-Roane; Chris Toney, R-Raleigh; Jeffrey Pack, R-Raleigh; Daniel Linville, R-Cabell; Paul Espinosa, R-Jefferson; John Williams, D-Monongalia; Doug Skaff, D-Kanawha; Tim Miley, D-Harrison; and Mick Bates, D-Raleigh.
The bill passed on a 94-4 vote. It now goes to the state Senate for further consideration.
