Sykes call center in Wise Virginia to become welfare offices.

Virginia Tobacco Commission Loses $1.1 Billion

by Lewis Loflin

Over $1 billion in TICR grants and another perhaps $1 billion in Appalachian Regional Commission, VCEDA, and LENOWISCO grants have been wasted by Republicans for corporate welfare and pork.

To quote the TICR on defaults:

Localities go through the dance, make applications, you approve it and send it all up and for whatever reason it never happens. Of those that do happen and are disbursed, about half of them deliver what they promise.

The other half either repaid some money because they fell short or they negotiate some relief or they flat out default on their obligations. These are not good numbers but I want you to know that this is what's happened in the TROF program but its gotten better...

See Tobacco Commission Sykes Fiasco Update 2019

The 2011 Blue Ribbon Audit of the Virginia Tobacco Commission revealed 89 percent of their grants have never been accounted for. None of the recommended reforms have been implemented and nothing has changed in 2019.

Many of the programs starting up in 2011 have nearly all failed. The TICR refuses FOIA requests demanding $70 an hour to do "research".

By 2019 they have spent $1.1 billion with little to show for it. Note the graphic at the top of the page. The entire program became a political slush fund.

Wholesale Plant Nursery Receives $8 Million for Energy Research

Update Dec. 2019: the plant nursery as an energy research center has failed. Their website went down around 2012, and the local Chamber of Commerce in Danville has no clue where they are.