This week’s 2025 off-year elections resulted in two new governors, solidified legislative Democratic majorities in New Jersey and Virginia, and the approval of significant ballot measures in California and Texas. While the gubernatorial campaigns centered on affordability and tapped into an electorate’s concerns about state and national economies, they also kick off speculation on the 2026 midterms.   Tuesday’s (Nov. 4) election also was the culmination of groundbreaking and disruptive mayoral campaigns in New York City and Seattle, which, like the gubernatorial elections, had centered around affordability and progressive agendas.  All of these elections resulted in historic candidates’ victories and massive voter participation at a level   unseen in over five decades and almost unheard of in off-year contests. 

Disaster relief is not directly within the purview of technology-based economic development organizations. Nonetheless, disasters frequently impact the partners and constituents of TBED organizations and exacerbate the social determinants of economic growth. Therefore, teams of people from TBED organizations frequently choose to step up and step out of their economic development sphere and engage in societal recovery from disasters. 

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College is often the time when students discover which career path they want to pursue, through coursework, internships, and hands-on experiences. New research examining state minimum wage increases, however, shows how budget pressures can disrupt access to these formative opportunities and ultimately affect who enters STEM careers.

Just 19% of the approximately 25,000 census tracts potentially eligible for Opportunity Zone (OZ) designation are “More likely to attract OZ investment, with larger impact,” per the Urban Institute’s new OZ Designation Tool.1 The majority (68%) of potentially eligible tracts were found to be “Less likely to attract OZ investment,” while the remaining 13% were determined likely to attract capital regardless of OZ designation. Breaking the data down further, this article showcases state-level aggregations of the percentage of potentially eligible tracts across each categorization to paint a picture of which states stand to benefit the most from the OZ program based on the count of tracts likely to receive investments.

As the first group of Tech Hub awardees approaches the end of their first year of implementation funding, hubs are gathering their consortia to share progress and chart next steps. As part of SSTI’s work with the Technology-based Economic Development (TBED) Community of Practice, program director Casey Nemecek attended the annual consortium meetings for two hubs in October: the Sustainable Polymers Tech Hub and the Nevada Tech Hub.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury (Treasury) recently issued three new FAQs for the State Small Business Credit Initiative 2.0 (SSBCI) program. These FAQs clarify and reiterate the timeline for the end of the Capital Program, and the deadlines by which participating jurisdictions must request disbursement of any remaining allocated Capital Program funds.

Note: The research careers for this year’s triple winners support the underlying arguments for public involvement in technology-based economic development. Well-designed and sustained public-private regional innovation initiatives—the work of SSTI and its member organizations—can make a positive difference for local competitiveness.