SSTI Digest

Richard Baier has been appointed director of the Nebraska Department of Economic Development.

Nebraska Governor Mike Johanns has appointed Richard Baier as the state's first rural development director. Baier will work closely with the new Nebraska Rural Development Commission.

The University of Nebraska Technology Park has named Steve Frayser as president.

Chuck Henderson has announced he will retire as president of the University of Nebraska's 130-acre Technology Park next June.

Carla Patterson is the new director of the Nebraska Manufacturing Extension Partnership.

A wake-up call. That's what the final report of the Lincoln Technology Council said the city received after learning one of its top employers was expanding its operations in a nearby city instead of Lincoln because of perceived weaknesses in Lincoln's telecommunications infrastructure. The result was Mayor Don Wesely creating the Mayor's Technology Council in February last year to "enhance the community's core technology strengths and infrastructure to achieve a competitive advantage for Lincoln as a leading city for technology-based businesses and to promote economic development." Prepared by Kansas City-based HDR Management Consulting Group, Lincoln Technology Assessment provides an assessment of the city's telecommunications infrastructure and its usage by the Lincoln community. The report gives specific recommendations for how to make the community more competitive for technology related businesses and provides detailed comparisons of several benchmarks for Lincoln and other cities — Boise, ID; Boulder, CO; Des Moines, IA; Ft. Collins, CO; Kansas City, MO; Madison, WI; and Omaha, NE. …

With the start of the new year, a number of state legislatures are reconvening. Quite a few states have significant research, science, and technology issues on their legislative calendar, including the following: Nebraska Governor Mike Johanns has proposed the creation of a tax credit for a variety of industries, including R&D firms, to encourage job creation, higher wages and investment in rural Nebraska. The plan would offer an income tax credit equal to five percent of the compensation paid for new employment and an additional income tax credit equal to ten percent of the new investment. While development projects in the entire state are eligible, those projects in the most distressed areas would have to meet lower investment or job creation thresholds to receive the credit. New York Governor George Pataki has proposed the establishment of Upstate High Technology Enterprise Zones to encourage technology-based economic development in those areas where job growth is below the state average. The plan includes a series of tax credits for research and development…