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North Dakota Governor John Hoeven dedicated the lion's share of his State of the State Address to promoting a vision of economic growth for the state based entirely on technology-based economic development. The proposals centered on more than a dozen new university-based Centers of Excellence and new tax credits.

The Sacramento Regional Technology Alliance is losing its executive director as Clare Emerson has announced she is relocating to oversee AEA's Texas office.

For Texas, the appropriate role for the state to serve in fostering economic development continues to evolve. With the passage of Senate Bill 275 earlier this month, the third organization in seven years will take the lead to encourage economic growth — this time with a strong focus on clusters and technology-based economic development.

In the final week of its 2003 Legislative Session, the North Dakota State Legislature passed sweeping legislation that favors tech-based economic development in the state. The Greater North Dakota Association (GNDA), serving as the state's Chamber of Commerce, subsequently issued a summary of those bills targeted toward job growth. Some highlights of GNDA's summary are presented below:

During the past two years, efforts have been launched in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex to boost its capacity for building a technology-based economy. The efforts have been directed toward increasing public-private cooperation, especially across organizations and jurisdictions that traditionally have thought of themselves as competitors, and conducting a critical review of the area's strengths and weaknesses.

Carolyn Stark is the new director of the Austin Technology Council, filling the position vacated by Paul Toprac.

The U.S. Small Business Administration has named Heath Copp as the Young Entrepreneur of the Year. Mr. Copp, 24, is a resident of Grand Forks, North Dakota.

If one were asked to identify localized examples of the economic spectacle that was the late 1990s, the metro region of Austin, Texas would be on most short lists. A recently completed economic development plan from the tech-soaked Austin suburb of Round Rock, however, reflects the fundamental upheaval or disruption that characterizes the economies of many regions of the country.



Round Rock has grown quickly, doubling in population during the last decade to become the second largest city in the Austin-San Marcos metro area. It is experiencing for the first time, like many other cities emerging in a decade marked by rapid urban sprawl, the challenges of a recession.



With 62,000 well-educated and well-paid residents, Round Rock appears in many ways to fit the model of any affluent "bedroom" suburbs across the country. A look at the city's tax receipts, however, reveals a community more similar to the "company towns" of mining, logging and other natural resource exploitative economies: one business contributes half of the city's annual sales tax receipts of $31.7 million. That company, Dell Computers, is based in Round Rock and, through a unique arrangement, gives the city 2 percent of the sales tax generated from every Dell computer system sold in the state.



Perhaps not surprisingly, a significant focus of The Round Rock Target Industry and Marketing Strategic Plan calls for diversification in high-tech sectors or local clusters currently weak but with potential to grow: telecommunications, software/multimedia/data, business and professional services, and to a lesser degree, retail and health services. The plan encourages the community as it diversifies its tax and employment base to build upon the strength of the existing computer equipment and electronics firms in town.



As competition for new business grows among neighboring communities, the plan advises Round Rock leaders to develop the economic development strategies already established in many older cities: encouraging and assisting local entrepreneurship; marketing/branding the community; developing a business recruitment, relocation and expansion program; implementing beautification/landscaping programs; and updating the city's incentive package.



The 182-page plan can be downloaded from http://www.angeloueconomics.com/roundrock/

In March, the North Dakota Department of Economic Development and Finance (ED&F) named Jim Hirsch director of workforce development.

The Wyoming legislature wrapped up its 2001 General Session on March 1. Several laws and supplemental appropriations were made that affect local efforts to grow a stronger tech-based economy. 



Senate Enrolled Act (SEA) 10 permits the Wyoming Business Council to use state funds to provide bridge financing to businesses, not to exceed 35 percent of the total cost of any particular project. 



SEA 71 creates a ten-year University of Wyoming endowment challenge program through which the state treasurer will match 1:1 each substantial private donation made to the university’s endowment fund. The legislature appropriated $30 million for the program in this year’s budget. 



House Enrolled Act (HEA) 32 repeals the sunset provisions for the University of Wyoming technology transfer center program, which without the law, would have terminated July 1, 2001. 



The legislature also provided $250,000 for the preliminary assessment, analysis, design and cost estimates for the University of Wyoming to establish a Wyoming technology business center. 



SEA 52 creates the Wyoming Energy Commission to facilitate the development, production, transportation, marketing and use of Wyoming's coal, hydro, ethanol, natural gas, oil, uranium, solar and wind resources. A portion of the Commission’s activities and a $1 million appropriation is to be dedicated to recommending research, development and demonstration projects and programs necessary to evaluate the availability and cost effectiveness of conservation and renewable resources in Wyoming. 



To increase access to capital, HEA 87 permits the state treasurer to invest up to $100 million in industrial development bonds and up to $55 million in small businesses through the purchase portions of federal SBA loan, FHA business and industry loans, and EDA loans. Prior to the bill’s passage, the ceiling for both investment activities had been limited to $35 million. The Wyoming Business Council administers the investment programs. 



To increase telemedicine opportunities and practices in the state, HEA 117 authorizes the department of administration and information to provide telecommunications services to private health care providers through the Wyoming equality network infrastructure. 



All of the bills mentioned above can be found at: http://legisweb.state.wy.us/2001/billsInfo.htm 

With his past efforts to strengthen the state’s position in the tech-based economy, new Texas Governor Rick Perry’s budget priorities — $251 million in new spending for college scholarships and math & science programs — should come as no surprise.



According to a recent article in the Austin American Statesman, Governor Perry’s budget recommendations will include $211 million in increased funding for college scholarships for lower-income students and $40 million for a new Master Math Teacher program to encourage more K-12 math instruction. Governor Perry cited a technically skilled workforce, built on a strong math and science education, as being needed for the state’s technology economy.



The move, consistent with Perry’s activities while serving as Lieutenant Governor, may foreshadow the Lone Star State taking a more active role in encouraging tech-based economic development.



In the fall of 1999, Perry established the state’s Advisory Council on the Digital Economy. This past October, the Council released Bringing Digital Opportunity to All Texans, a comprehensive strategy designed to create a technically trained workforce for the Lone Star State. Among the panel’s recommendations are the creation of a new position of State Technology Commissioner and a State Technology Council to advise the governor and state leaders on technology strategies and opportunities concerning economic development and state services.



Key education-related recommendations included:

In an effort to provide quality, high-speed telecommunications services throughout the state, North Dakota has committed $3 million for the first phase of a broadband telecommunications network that is expected to cost the state $20 million when completed. When the first phase is finished later this year, 218 locations in 64 communities will be connected.