Riley Takes Helm at SGA

Alabama Gov. Bob Riley on Monday became chairman of the Southern Governors’ Association at the organization’s annual meeting in Williamsburg, Va.

Riley, who succeeds Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, said that his goal at the helm of the SGA would be to combine the resources and influence of Southern states to promote mutual economic interests.

The initiative, called Securing Southern Economic Success, will include collaborating on economic development efforts to benefit the region and “selling the American South” to the rest of the world, as well as engaging Southern governors in ongoing discussions about federal policies that could negatively affect their region.

“For the last decade or more, the South has set the pace for the rest of the nation in economic growth,” Riley said in a release. “There has been more positive growth, more investment, and more progress coming to the Southern states than perhaps any other region.”

The 75-year-old SGA is composed of governors from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Virginia, and West Virginia.

The SGA’s Web site is at www.southerngovernors.org.

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