John Bell for Virginia

John Bell said he would like to see Virginia take on some of the transportation policies used in other states, like Missouri's practical design standards where roads in areas of bedrock would be laid on top of the rock instead of spending the money to blast through.

"They saved half a billion dollars doing that and now three other states have adopted that method," Bell said.

Bell said it was time for the state to go back to the 2002 Wilder Commission report, which made recommendations on how to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of state government, and see if any of its points that had not been initiated could now be done. Bell said several times he was committed to "growing the tax base, not the tax rate" and Virginia should be looking to different industries, such as alternative energy and automated medical records, for job growth.

www.leesburg2day.com/articles/2009/10/01/news/fp30chamber100109.txt