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Hawai`i Governor Outlines Broad-based Innovation Strategy
With the opportunity presented by a $732 million budget surplus, Gov. Linda Lingle wants Hawai`i to shift its public investment philosophy away from land development and toward encouraging, nurturing and rewarding innovation, creativity, entrepreneurship and risk-taking. Most of Gov. Lingle's State of the State Address on Jan. 22 and her 56-page 2007 Initiatives booklet is dedicated to explaining how she wants the public sector to lead realignment of the state’s economy toward “one fueled by innovation and new ideas generated by our universities and a highly-trained workforce.”
Facing a legislature controlled by Democrats, the Republican governor’s plan embraces several proposals first advanced by legislative leadership last session, including a $100 million Hawai`i Innovation Fund. The privately managed technology-based equity fund would be capitalized from the State Employees Retirement System, under Gov. Lingle’s proposal.
Other proposals include:
- High school students who successfully complete the science, technology and math curriculum through proposed STEM academies, would receive undergraduate scholarships at the University of Hawai`i, or a local college or technical school.
- Expanding STEM educational opportunities for sixth- to ninth-graders as well.
- Providing matching funds to endow three professorships in STEM disciplines at the University of Hawai`i
- Shifting state workforce development programs from the Department of Labor to the Department of Business and Economic Development.
- Expanding available incubator space by partnering with Kamehameha Schools, which is planning to build the Asia-Pacific Research Center.
- Supporting the development of a digital media incubator facility and R&D lab.
- Ensuring affordable wireless Internet access throughout the islands by 2010.
- Reinstating an 11-cents-per-gallon biofuels tax exemption that expired on Dec. 31, 2006.
Gov. Lingle’s State of the State Address and 2007 Initiatives booklet, as well as links to a number of external supporting documents for the governor’s Innovation Initiative, are available at http://www.hawaii.gov/dbedt/innovation.