By Lewis Loflin
"GO Virginia!"—yet another state-funded economic development board promising prosperity—continues a decades-long pattern of squandered taxpayer money in Southwest Virginia. The Bristol Herald Courier, in a March 17, 2018, piece, described the region’s economic stats as "somewhat of an eye-opener." For anyone paying attention, though, it’s no surprise. The evidence of failure is glaring.
For over 20 years, I’ve tracked this region’s dependence on government handouts masquerading as economic development. Hundreds of millions have vanished into empty energy research centers, green energy flops, fish farms, strawberry fields, and a library funded with pilfered grants. Taxpayers shelled out $12 million for a country music museum and $2 million to spruce up a private barn for the same cause. We’ve seen public funds lobby for more public funds—like Amtrak to Bristol—and dozens of non-profits spring up as conduits for politicians to funnel grants to cronies.
Take the BVU-Optinet fiasco: $100–$200 million in public money built a fiber optic network, only for a chunk to be sold off to a private company birthed with taxpayer dollars. A dozen company officers and contractors landed in federal prison—a scandal I called out over a decade ago. Now, it’s being offloaded for $50 million in a secretive deal with no public input. Same old story.
The results speak for themselves. From July 1, 2015, to June 30, 2016, Southwest Virginia (Region 1) saw a 0.9% job decline while Virginia overall gained 0.9% and the U.S. grew 1.5%. Mike Quillion, former CEO of Alpha Natural Resources—a company that burned through millions in public funds for phantom jobs—called it shocking. He’s part of the problem, not the revelation.
What is the status of the $42.45 billion allocated for rural fiber optic broadband? This figure comes from the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program, part of the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, aimed at delivering high-speed internet, including fiber optics, to rural areas. As of March 28, 2025, over 1,000 days since its passage, BEAD has not completed any connections or started significant construction. FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr and X posts criticize the lack of progress, blaming a 14-step approval process. A March 2025 Tampa Free Press article noted only three of 56 jurisdictions are nearing final approval.
The $42.45 billion isn’t fully spent—it’s appropriated, with funds still being disbursed to states for planning and subgrantee selection under the NTIA. While federal broadband spending hit $14.7 billion in FY22 (per a 2023 NTIA report), BEAD’s builds remain stalled. Smaller programs, like USDA’s ReConnect, have spent over $1 billion since 2018, connecting some rural areas, but BEAD’s scale dominates the narrative. So, the $42.45 billion is allocated, not lost, but bureaucratic delays mean no rural fiber optic networks are built yet—three years and counting.
— Quoted from Grok, xAI, March 28, 2025
Consider Alpha’s arc in Abingdon. They sold their building to Washington County for millions above its appraised value in a hush-hush deal, costing taxpayers $10–$20 million (with interest) for a glitzy new office—replacing one that cost $1 a year. Then they moved to Bristol, snagged $9 million in free land, millions more in grants and utility perks—another $20 million hit to taxpayers—for a promised 100 jobs ($200,000 per job). Those jobs? Nowhere to be found. After bankruptcy and a move to Tennessee, the property was flipped to a foreign investor, possibly for $27 million, while the building sits empty in 2025.
This is why economic development here is a sham. The root issues—cronyism, an abusive business climate, labor exploitation, and poverty wages driving youth exodus—are ignored. Public input is zero as insiders rake in millions, leaving the average citizen with nothing.
GO Virginia, or the Virginia Initiative for Growth and Opportunity in Each Region, touts itself as a "bipartisan, business-led" effort. Launched in 2016 by the Council on Virginia’s Future and the Virginia Business Higher Education Council, it claims to tackle federal cutbacks, diversify the economy, and foster collaboration between business, education, and government. Southwest Virginia, dubbed Region 1, includes cities like Bristol, Galax, and Norton, and counties such as Bland, Buchanan, and Wise. UVA-Wise, awash in grants—including a $30 million convocation center—serves as its support hub, producing little beyond its own walls.
The pitch? Support existing businesses, expand markets, and recruit new industries. Sound familiar? They’ve been peddling this for 20 years with no list of tangible jobs to show. Labor and public voices are conspicuously absent from the process. Virginia remains a low-wage, labor-hostile state, and Region 1 consistently ranks dead last.
Let’s compare Region 1 to other Virginia regions, using updated 2023 data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS) and 2024 County Health Rankings where available:
Region 1 trails miserably. Northern Virginia hoards the wealth, while Southwest Virginia mirrors Region 3 (Danville area) in stagnation—both victims of failed schemes like the Tobacco Commission. High poverty and crime in cities like Bristol (38% children in poverty, 328 violent crimes per 100,000) and Wise County (29% children in poverty, 204 violent crimes) underscore the neglect.
The business climate thrives on low wages. Take meatpacking: in 1981, inflation-adjusted wages were $26.55/hour (per CPI calculator); by 2017, median pay was $13/hour—a 50% drop, fueled by immigrant and illegal labor. Bristol’s service and hospitality jobs hover near the 1981 minimum wage of $3.35 (inflation-adjusted to $9.85 today). Businesses win; workers lose.
From County Health Rankings (2024):
Poor health outcomes, high poverty, and broken families are the legacy of this system. GO Virginia changes nothing—it’s the same insiders guarding the cheese.
Until Southwest Virginia confronts its corrupt business practices, secrecy, and refusal to invest in human capital, initiatives like GO Virginia will remain a taxpayer-funded mirage. The region bleeds jobs and people while the same players pocket the profits. It’s not an eye-opener—it’s a wake-up call we’ve ignored for decades.
Acknowledgment: I’d like to thank Grok, an AI by xAI, for helping me draft and refine this article. The final edits and perspective are my own.
Section updated, added 3/30/2025
43 People Arrested-Indicted for Drugs Spend Thanksgiving in Jail
In Southwest Virginia and East Tennessee, poverty, crime, and welfare stats smash racial stereotypes. By 2022, 25.8% of white births were out-of-wedlock (CDC), feeding a shiftless white underclass—marked by substance abuse, violence, and laziness—that mirrors its Black counterpart. Race isn’t the driver; behavior is.
Big drug busts, like the 43 arrested in 2023 (90% white, averaging 37-38 years old), cluster around public housing, where Bristol’s crime spikes (Kingsport Times-News, 2023). West Virginia’s drug overdose deaths hit 90.9 per 100,000 by 2021 (CDC). A 2016 Virginia Medicaid study shocks: 40,000 adults with substance abuse disorders, over half with serious mental illness also addicted, costing $54 million yearly in ER and opioid bills (VCU). Washington County, Virginia, logged 423 overdose deaths from 2007-2014 alone. The press obsesses over race, but class is the real story.
Medicaid’s 70.6 million beneficiaries in 2022 were 39% white (27.5 million), 20% Black, and 30% Hispanic (CMS)—raw numbers dwarf Politifact’s 17 million poor whites claim. Here, 90% white, 50% of households rely on transfers (Census, 2021). Food stamps in 2022: 43 million recipients, 35% white (15 million), 25% Black (USDA). Poor whites outnumber poor Blacks 2.4-to-1 on welfare—behavior, not skin, fuels this mess.
Conclusion: This is a white problem, heaviest among the 30-45 age group, tied to public housing. Most are of working age, but criminal records—paired with scarce drug treatment—make them unemployable. Employers already struggle to find drug-free workers here. Non-violent offenses often turn violent, and the impact on kids is brutal. Bristol’s crime uptick? You guessed it—public housing.
A sick laugh: Seatbelt Violation Leads to 14 Drug Arrests in Kingsport—13 white, one Black, all petty crooks. West Virginia’s overdose rate jumped from 36.3 per 100,000 in 2011 to 90.9 in 2021 (CDC), while the U.S. rose from 13.2 to 32.4. Virginia’s 2016 study notes, “More Virginians die yearly from drug overdoses than car crashes,” with prescription opiates hammering SWVA.
With a 2021 white population of 252 million (Census), ~11% are in poverty—not 8% as some claim. Black population: 47.2 million (2020). SWVA’s 50% on transfers reflects our 90% white makeup—2.4 times more poor whites than Blacks on welfare. Huffington Post (2018) nails it: “Americans overestimate how many African-Americans benefit from welfare.” Food stamps in 2022: 35% white (15 million), 25% Black (10.75 million)—numbers, not ratios, rule. The press pushes a lie that only Blacks and Hispanics are poor; here, it’s mostly white faces.
Download The Opioid Crisis Among Virginia Medicaid Beneficiaries PDF for the ugly details.