You only have a few thousand places that sell alcohol in Virginia. There are 33,000 places that sell cigarettes. If we want ABC agents to do the enforcement, they will need significant resources and they will need a mandate. Even if Beyer doesn't believe estimates of tobacco-related job losses from FDA regulation, studies show that the tobacco and manufacturing economy in Virginia faces many challenges. The solution to those challenges is strengthening education, Beyer said.
Education is economic development.
The most important thing we can do to help economic development in Southside, to help tobacco farmers adjust to a changing world marketplace, is the investment in education. That disparity, Beyer said, in unacceptable. He is also an advocate of greater authority for school teachers and is pushing a bill this year that would allow teachers to dismiss disruptive students from their classrooms. Beyer also criticized the closing of the state's regional economic development office in South Boston. To help attract industry, Beyer said the state must make a greater investment in building industrial parks and in helping to train or retrain workers.