“We do need more money,” said Dennis H. Treacy, a member of the business council who also serves as chairman of the Virginia Chamber, rector of Virginia Tech, and president of the Smithfield Foundation. “We need level and stable funding, and we need it focused on what the employers say really matters.”

For the chamber, the path back to a top-five ranking among states for business leads through higher education, Treacy said. “Higher education is at the epicenter of what the chamber is trying to do.”

Higher education also is central to a number of other business-led initiatives the state has endorsed — including funding for collaborative research that can translate to new technologies and businesses; GO Virginia, a regionally focused economic development model that relies on the state’s community colleges as a pipeline for trained workers; and refocused workforce development programs that have in the past lost sight of the skills employers say they most need.