New Governors Out of the Gate Fast On S&T

Two new Governors, Bob Wise of West Virginia and Wisconsin's Scott McCallum, have put tech-based economic development in the forefront of their respective economic agendas.



West Virginia

In his first State of the State Address, delivered February 14, and the Economic Development Plan released during his campaign for office, Governor Bob Wise outlined several tech-based economic development and education initiatives for the state to pursue immediately. He followed up the address by giving the state assembly several specific legislative proposals.



Governor Wise's proposals include:

• retain the state's brightest high school graduates, fund the state's Promise Scholarship program to provide funancial support for every qualified student to attend the state's colleges, universities and technical training centers
• create a State Science Camp for high school graduates, modeled on 
  
  the month-long National Youth Science Camp <http://www.sciencecamp.org/>
• reform the West Virginia Capital Company Act to restrict use of the funds to new job creation
• create a Sunny Day Fund for the state to use as incentives in attracting company investment into West Virginia
• create job training partnerships with colleges and universities
• establish business opportunity zones
• create a partnership between higher education and businesses to create manufacturing jobs through joint research and a stronger state commitment to the NIST Manufacturing Extension Partnership and West Virginia Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR)
• strengthen the role of local economic development councils in the state's ED efforts
• expand access to capital for small and emerging businesses through a Mountaineer Opportunity Fund ($15 million in state monies matched with $30 million in private investment and $90 million leveraged from the Small Business Administration's Small Business Investment Corp. program)
• create the West Virginia Funds Access Network to increase start-up investment opportunities in the state
• create a Virtual Entrepreneur Institute to provide on-line training, on-line access to entrepreneurship resources and encourage entrepreneurship in public schools and higher education as well
• create a network of small business accelerators and virtual technology incubators for emerging business growth
• develop a cluster-based plan for technology-based economic development
• create technology-training programs, utlizing virtual learning centers whenever possible
• identify staff in the West Virginia Development Office to work exclusively in emerging biotechnology and genetic industries

The Governor's economic development plan and State of the State Address are available at http://www.state.wv.us/governor/

Wisconsin

Governor Scott McCallum, who took office February 1 with Gov. Thompson's appointment as Secretary of Health and Human Services, included a $35 million tax credit for high tech companies in his FY 01-02 budget request, released Tuesday. The credits, to be available to businesses that expand or locate in seven targeted technology zones throughout the state, are the first phase of a program that McCallum hopes will grow to include 20 zones and $100 million in credits. Each zone would have a maximum credit eligibility of $5 million. The Wisconsin Department of Commerce will certify business eligibility for the credit. More information on the Technology Development Zone Program is available at: http://www.wisgov.state.wi.us under February 12 Press Releases.