SSTI Digest

Arizona  The Ways & Means Committee of the Arizona House of Representatives has passed a bill to eliminate $250 million in sales tax exemptions for a number of products and services, including telecommunications equipment and solar devices. If the bill passes, proceeds would be used to raise teachers' salaries.  Also in Arizona, the Arizona Telecommunications and Information Council, a subpart of the Governor's Strategic Partnership for Economic Development (GSPED) issued The Multitenant Building Telecommunications Assessment Study, which makes recommendations to the Arizona government to deal with telecommunications issues in multitenant buildings. Actions suggested include: regulations to prohibit exclusive multitenant facility access agreements by building managers and owners with single or selected telecommunication providers; regulations to better define the Point-of-Demarcation (POD) and ownership of internal wiring to help avoid disputes and litigation among stakeholders; and act to incorporate wireless telecommunications providers into the Arizona Universal Service Fund (USF) program to encourage wireless…

The State of Arkansas has enacted several initiatives this year to assist science, technology, and research within the state. The two largest efforts are a $10 million research fund and a loan forgiveness program. Arkansas Research Matching Fund In an effort to improve the state’s national ranking of 49th place in research performance, the Arkansas General Assembly created the Arkansas Research Matching Fund. The $10 million fund will be administered by the Arkansas Science & Technology Authority, the state’s lead agency for R&D funding and technology-based economic development. (URL: http://www.state.ar.us/asta/ ) The $10 million appropriation is to fund the program for the next two years. The new fund will provide grants to Arkansas universities and colleges to fulfill all or a portion of the match requirement of federally funded research projects from ten selected federal agencies. The program will complement the improvements made in Arkansas’s academic research capacity through the various federal EPSCoR programs. Only large projects are…