Funding for TBED Trimmed in NC Budget

Lawmakers continued to provide support for life sciences at a reduced level in the recently enacted budget; however, other technology areas did not fare as well. In some cases, funding was eliminated for tech-based initiatives, and lawmakers allowed a tax credit for early stage investors to expire. Meanwhile, the North Carolina Biotechnology Center plans to consolidate activities and redouble efforts to keep things moving in the wake of a 27 percent reduction to their budget.

Established nearly 30 years ago, the NC Biotechnology Center serves as a statewide hub for life-science commercialization with activities including funding faculty recruitment and research with commercial potential. The 2013-15 biennial budget provides $12.6 million each fiscal year for the center, which is $4.6 million less per year than last biennium. Of this amount, $8.2 million each year is for science and commercialization activities. In a recent news article, Norris Tolson, President and CEO of the NC Biotechnology Center, said his group will work to consolidate activities around the new number.

Funding for the Biofuels Center of North Carolina was eliminated ($4.3 million annually). The center, which was created in 2007 to help develop biofuels from energy crops other than corn, will close on Oct. 31 and return unspent funds to the North Carolina Department of Commerce, reports the News & Observer. The budget also closes the NC Green Business Fund and requires any remaining balance to be transferred to Commerce. The fund provided competitive grants to help small businesses develop commercial innovations and applications in the biofuels industry and the green building industry.

As part of a new tax structure signed into law by Gov. McCrory, the Qualified Business Tax Credit was allowed to expire on Jan. 1. The credit was targeted to early stage investors, providing up to 25 percent and capped at $50,000 per year, per investor.

The budget also allows the secretary of Commerce to move ahead with implementing a public-private partnership for economic development, an initiative proposed by Gov. Pat McCrory earlier this year. An early version of the governor’s plan outlined a “Partnership for Prosperity” blueprint that calls for dividing the state into seven zones that would develop regionally-focused economic development strategies (see the June 26, 2013 issue of the Digest). In the budget language, Commerce is given the flexibility to reorganize the department toward a public-private model despite lawmakers having not approved SB 127, a bill outlining those specific changes. The budget allocates $1 million in FY14 to cover the costs of reorganizing positions within the department.

In the wake of criticism from a state audit for failure to provide proper oversight of the NC Rural Economic Development Center, and its subsequent dismantling, lawmakers established a new Division of Rural Economic Development. The goal is to promote job creation, infrastructure development and small business development in distressed rural counties. The budget provides $11.3 million for the division, down from $16 million previously provided to the center.

Lawmakers will return for an abbreviated session in 2014. The $20.6 billion 2013-15 budget is available at: http://www.ncleg.net/Sessions/2013/Bills/Senate/PDF/S402v7.pdf.