VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — In a little over a month, Glenn Youngkin will be sworn in as the next Governor of Virginia.
In front of Hampton Roads business leaders Wednesday, he shared his immediate plans to push the economy forward when he takes office.
Governor-Elect Glenn Youngkin spoke as Keynote Speaker for the Hampton Roads Chamber annual event at the Virginia Beach Convention Center.
“The spirit of Virginia is alive,” he said to the crowd.
Youngkin will be sworn in on January 15, along with Lieutenant Governor-elect Winsome Sears and Attorney General-elect Jason Miyares.
Upon taking office, Youngkin says he wants to get started on “jump-starting” job growth and focus on the challenges in Virginia’s business climate, including the labor shortage, creating more livable wages and improving the cost of living.
“Permits and licensing must move work quickly. We have to move at the speed of business and not the speed of government,” said Youngkin.
Youngkin said he wants to reduce 25% of the regulatory framework in an effort to keep people and employers in the Commonwealth by making it easier to do business.
“Governors do not create jobs; you all do!” Youngkin said.
To build the workforce, he said he wants to make sure students K-12 are college or career ready while investing in workplace development.
“We will develop a world-class workforce supply,” he said.
But one of his first actions as Governor, he says, will involve an executive order.
Youngkin plans to pull Virginia out of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, or RGGI.
It’s a multi-state initiative to reduce carbon pollution from the pier sector and push under the Northam administration.
Youngkin called it “a bad deal business," saying it will cost Virginia millions of dollars.
“(People) who are already suffering from an overwhelming increase on the cost of living across the Commonwealth,” he said. “So that’s why people are moving away from here faster than they are the other 49 states.”
Meanwhile, Youngkin said he will champion investments in fossil fuel and wind, solar and nuclear power.
Youngkin also mentioned investments in infrastructure, lowering taxes, including the grocery tax, and a goal of adding 400,000 new jobs and fostering 10,000 new start-ups over the next four years.