SSTI Digest

Once viewed primarily as an economic development issue, data center growth has emerged as a major policy platform in this year's gubernatorial contests, with candidates from both parties advancing policies that place varying limits and regulations on data center development. And as the November elections approach, candidates continue revise their data center positions.

The Oregon Mass Timber Coalition (the Coalition) received a $41.4 million grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration’s Build Back Better Regional Challenge in September 2022 to implement a comprehensive strategy for expanding the use of mass timber sourced and manufactured in Oregon in the construction market.

Around the turn of the century, a sizable number of states began asking a practical question: How well were they positioned to compete in an economy increasingly shaped by science and technology? Innovation indices offered a way to answer this question.

According to NSF and the SEMI Foundation, “By 2030, the United States is projected to face a shortfall of approximately 127,000 to 157,000 semiconductor and microelectronics workers.” In an effort to counteract the potential challenge to U.S. competitiveness, the foundation is serving as the Hub Operator for the National Network for Microelectronics Education (NNME) and recently announced the launch of the first four Regional Nodes of the NNME. Three of the four nodes are led by SSTI members: Boise State University, the University of Texas at Austin, and the Arizona Commerce Authority. The fourth node is led by NY Creates. 

The momentum building in the 21 “Building Better Regions” (BBR) projects is growing, and RTI, the leader of the BBBRC Community of Practice, and SSTI are seeing positive impacts and approaches to collaborative regional innovation that could benefit other practitioners and TBED stakeholders if made aware of the success.

Kansas lawmakers are exploring the creation of a state bitcoin reserve funded solely by abandoned digital assets, rather than using state funds to purchase cryptocurrency. Under the plan, the state would integrate abandoned or unclaimed digital assets into a new fund, with 10% of the deposits directed towards the state’s general fund, while any unclaimed or abandoned bitcoin would remain, creating a quasi-state bitcoin strategic reserve.

Michigan lawmakers have recently introduced a package of economic development measures (House Bills [HB] 5243 and 5244, Senate Bill [SB] 631) that would disband the state’s economic development agency, the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC)—a quasi-state agency, as well as eliminate other economic development and business incentives, such as the Michigan Strategic Fund, the Strategic Outreach and Attraction Reserve (SOAR) Fund, Strategic Site Readiness Program and the Michigan Film and Digital Media Office.

NSF’s Regional Resilience Innovation Incubator (R2I2) project has awarded Phase 1 funding to six teams, each addressing specific regional climate challenges and demonstrating solutions. The award includes funding for a seventh team to create the R2I2 National Office, which will support the collective and coordinated implementation of R2I2 award activities.

For the United States to achieve greater security in chip manufacturing, the critical sector requires a much larger, better trained workforce. Between 2020 and 2022, annual postings for semiconductor jobs tripled from about 8,000 to almost 25,000, according to a new report, “The challenge of building a regional semiconductor workforce pipeline: What regions can learn from Austin, Texas and an agenda for cross-regional learning” from the Institute for Networked Communities (INC). As noted in the report, analysts expect that between 2023 and 2030, the industry will grow 33%, an increase of 115,000 jobs.

Forty-one states and Puerto Rico will vote on 151 statewide ballot measures this fall.   

Many of this year’s measures focus on abortion; citizenship or electoral system reforms (such as Arizona’s Proposition (Prop) 133 and Missouri’s Amendment 7, which would prohibit ranked-choice voting, while Idaho’s Prop 1, Nevada’s Question 3, and Oregon’s Measure 117 would establish ranked-choice voting); criminal justice or drug use policies (including the legalization of recreational (Florida, North Dakota, and South Dakota) or medical (Nebraska) marijuana, as well as certain psychedelic substances (Massachusetts could be the third state to legalize psilocybin); and minimum wage increases. Voters in Alaska, California, Massachusetts, and Missouri will decide on minimum wage increases, with Nebraska voters deciding on an initiative requiring paid sick leave for employees. In Arizona, voters will decide whether tipped workers should be paid 25% less per hour than minimum wage.

A dozen initiatives would impact tech-based economic development—providing funding for initiatives, changing the electoral or redistricting system, altering taxes, or modifying the governance of higher education.

Thirty-six states held gubernatorial contests in Tuesday’s (Nov. 8) mid-term elections. By the end of the last week, winners in 32 states had been chosen. As of today, contests in Arizona, Nevada and Oregon have been called; while votes continued to be tallied in Alaska, which held its first ranked choice general election. Gov. Mike Dunleavy maintains a substantial lead and appears he will be re-elected. As such, Dunleavy will be the first governor to be elected to back-to-back terms in the state since former Democratic Gov. Tony Knowles won reelection in 1998.