OCAST May Receive $12M Boost in FY 2009

Gov. Brad Henry unveiled the details of his fiscal year 2009 budget recommendation earlier this week, providing a substantial increase in funding to the state’s lead TBED agency and proposing a permanent funding mechanism for cutting-edge research through the EDGE Endowment.

 

Citing a sizable return on investment from the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology (OCAST), the governor is recommending $34.5 million for FY09 – a 54 percent increase over last year’s appropriation. OCAST is slated to receive $6 million to replace one-time funding for the Bioenergy Center – established in 2007 – and $5 million to replace seed capital funds that were diverted last year for the center (see the June 6, 2007 issue of the Digest). An additional $4 million from OCAST seed funds appropriated last year would be allocated to the Bioenergy Center in FY09 for a total of $10 million. Gov. Henry also recommends $1 million to enhance existing OCAST programs.

 

Funding for the state’s research endowment is accumulating at a much slower rate than expected. With only $150 million deposited into the proposed $1 billion endowment since 2004, Gov. Henry is asking lawmakers to approve a permanent funding source using surplus gross production taxes on oil to grow the fund at a faster pace. Currently, oil revenues are deposited into a number of different accounts until they reach $150 million. The governor’s plan would direct any surplus revenues over the $150 million threshold to the EDGE endowment. Lawmakers did not allocate funding to the EDGE program last year. 

 

The budget recommendation for the Department of Commerce and Tourism is $32.9 million – a 17 percent increase over the FY08 appropriation. This includes $2 million for the Oklahoma Creativity Project, a collaborative statewide initiative to establish the state as a world-renowned center of creativity and innovation in commerce, education and culture. The governor’s budget also would remove one-time funding for the 2nd Century Entrepreneurship Program, which acts as a central point of access and information for new business enterprises.

 

In his State of the State Address, Gov. Henry asked lawmakers to continue the momentum of recent years in the arena of higher education and fully fund endowed chairs and reduce their backlog in colleges and universities. The budget recommendation also includes $1.5 million to expand the Middle School Math labs initiated in 2005. Initial funding was provided for 10 labs in middle schools with low math performance and was subsequently expanded the following year due to high success rates.

 

Two aerospace bills under consideration this legislative session would provide tax incentives to keep aerospace graduates in the state and support aerospace-related research and economic development activities. Held over from last session, HB 2784 provides an income tax credit of up to $5,000 for college graduates who work in aerospace or engineering for a period of five years, provides tax credits for employers of up to 30 percent of the qualified wage cost of employment, and offers incentives for recruiting college interns. HB 3098 creates the Oklahoma Aerospace Institute to support the aerospace industry in the areas of education and training, research and economic development. The institute will include a center for applied research to focus on R&D and technology transfer activities. 

 

Gov. Brad Henry’s FY 2009 budget recommendation is available at: http://ok.gov/OSF/Budget/Budget_Books.html