SSTI Digest

Earlier this month Governor Jeanne Shaheen released New Hampshire in the New Economy: A Vision for Expanded Prosperity, the first-ever comprehensive economic development plan for the State of New Hampshire. The plan calls for New Hampshire state government to focus its activities toward encouraging innovation, strengthening education and workforce development, retaining and protecting the quality of life, and extending economic opportunity to every citizen in every part of the state.



The plan’s 39 recommendations are divided among six categories. Specific recommendations relating to tech-based economic development are highlighted below.



Maintaining A Strong Economy

The Small Business Administration (SBA) will distribute up to $3.4 million for small technology business development efforts across as many as 30 states through the first Federal and State Technology Partnership (FAST) request for proposals, released online Tuesday. Proposals are due Thursday, June 7, 2001. Individual state awards will range from $100,000 - $150,000.

FAST, included in legislation reauthorizing the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program last December, provides matching funds to enable states to augment or expand their tech business assistance and SBIR outreach efforts. Recognizing the priority nearly every state has placed on encouraging technological innovation and commercialization by small businesses, the Science and Technology Council of the States made the FAST program’s creation a top priority during last year’s SBIR reauthorization by Congress.

Legislation for the Technology Education and Training Act, introduced earlier this week by a bipartisan group of six Senators, calls for the creation of a income tax credit for businesses to offset information technology training expenses of their workers and trainees. The credit would be equal to 100 percent of the first $1,500 a business spends to train an individual worker. The credit would increase to $2,000 per individual if the training program offered by the business is located in a specially designated area, including existing Empowerment Zones.



Because the credit would apply to programs which lead to certification in information technology (IT), the bill, if passed, also would encourage businesses to form partnerships with schools, universities and job training programs.

Long-held opinions are hard to change. The state of the US manufacturing sector is a good example. Many people, particularly those in the Northeast and Midwest, hold tightly to memories of mass layoffs and factory closings nearly 20 years ago.



After two decades of transformation, today’s manufacturing sector is quite different. In fact, manufacturing exports, including food production and processing, have enjoyed positive annual growth rates in all but one state since 1986, point out the authors of Comparing Manufacturing Export Growth Across States: What Accounts for the Differences?, a recent journal article from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Nationally, manufacturing exports as a share of Gross Domestic Product grew from 4.1 percent in 1986 to 7.0 percent in 1998.

Colorado

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is donating $8 million over five years to support the creation of four “high tech” high schools around the state. Modeled after San Diego’s High Tech High, the Colorado schools will have teacher-to-student ratios of 1:15 and the same teacher will work with the students for four years. Students would have individualized workstations and practical internship experience will be built into the curriculum. The state is providing an $8 million match for the grant. Marc Holtzman, the Governor’s Secretary for Technology, is chairing the effort.



The Gates grant will also support the creation of a charter school network and breaking three large public schools into smaller multiplex schools managed by a private organization. For more information, see: http://www.gatesfoundation.org/

Offering an assessment of the progress made by the nation's 50 largest metropolitan areas toward becoming high-tech communities as well as providing policy recommendations to help cultivate and encourage New Economy businesses, the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) and Case Western Reserve University's Center for Regional Economic Issues yesterday released The Metropolitan New Economy Index: Benchmarking Economic Transformation in the Nation's Metropolitan Areas. These metro areas account for approximately 60 percent of the nation's workforce.



The top 25 states (based on aggregate score) are:

On Wednesday, South Carolina Governor Jim Hodges announced the appointment of a 38-member Steering Committee of the Technology Transition Team. The group, chaired by the president of the South Carolina operations of BellSouth, consists of business leaders, technology entrepreneurs, financial executives, research university leaders, and government representatives. Technology Transition Team responsibilities include:

Ben Franklin Technology Partners. Pittsburgh Technology Council. Industrial Resource Centers. Tech 21. Pittsburgh Digital Greenhouse. Whether one is looking for examples of states’ efforts in workforce development, innovative university-industry research partnerships, effective technology councils, or practically any other tech-based economic development program, Pennsylvania is one of the first states to come to mind because of its long-standing tradition of supporting innovative approaches to building a tech-based economy.

Due to a number of requests from SSTI Weekly Digest readers, we have prepared the accompanying table presenting the 1998 "R&D Intensity" rankings for all 50 states and the District of Columbia. R&D Intensity is considered a state's total R&D performance as a percentage of the Gross State Product. Readers' requests came as a result of an April 6, 2001 SSTI Weekly Digest article on a recent Issue Brief from the National Science Foundation, R&D Spending is Highly Concentrated in A Small Number of States. Figures for only the top ten states were provided in the Issue Brief.



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The Best Practices program in the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), which for the past five years has highlighted and honored hundreds of varied and effective approaches to community development, has been discontinued. The program publications, website and annual conference provided state and local economic development efforts easy access to information and contacts for successful practices worthy of emulation.



HUD Secretary Martinez has determined that funds required to continue Best Practices would be used more effectively to increase training for HUD staff. The agency website reports HUD will look for “other means to achieve the original objectives of the Best Practices program at a sustainable cost.”

Joe Alviani has resigned as Executive Director of the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative to accept a position in the private sector. MTC Executive Vice President Philip Holahan is serving as Interim Executive Director.



The Vermont Economic Progress Council has named Fred Kenney as Executive Director. VEPC is the nine-member panel established in 1994 with members appointed by the Governor to provide long-term economic policy planning. In 1998 it was given the responsibility of implementing the Economic Advancement Tax Incentives Act and reviewing applications for tax incentives.



After seven years of serving as the first president of the Connecticut Technology Council, Laura Kent is resigning her position at the end of June. The Council now boasts over 400 members.



Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge has promoted Tim McNulty to the new position of Deputy Chief of Staff for Technology Initiatives.

Joe Alviani has resigned as Executive Director of the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative to accept a position in the private sector. MTC Executive Vice President Philip Holahan is serving as Interim Executive Director.