The fund could be used to help create or expand rural businesses. Now I've been skeptical of initiatives, such as state appropriations for the Microelectronics Center, whereby the taxpayers bear the risk but share in none of the reward. But this initiative allows the state treasurer to act as an investor, sharing in both the risk and reward on behalf of the taxpayers, while also attracting private and federal dollars. Hunt could replicate this model for other needs, especially affordable housing. What little affordable housing there was in the east was destroyed by Floyd.
Affordable housing is an oxymoron in the state's urban areas.
Hunt has shown leadership on housing issues before and could step up to the plate here. The tax code represents another challenge Hunt could tackle. His tax policy has been to give tax breaks to lure industry and to upstage Republican initiatives with income tax relief in 1995 and repeal of the state sales tax on food a few years later. But the legislature has a tax policy commission formed to modernize and simplify state and local taxes. Hunt could use his leadership to help the commission create a set of tax policy changes making the system adequate, simpler and fairer.