SSTI Digest

A handful of showcase events across the country are known widely by mere nicknames, gather lots of media attention, and attract tens of thousands of people or more each year. Can a state’s lead technology-based economic development stand out in this kind of crowd? Is it worth the investment to try?  For Lindsey Cox, CEO of Launch Tennessee, the answer has been a "yes" for the past two years and likely will be again in 2026. She led Tennessee's participation in SXSW (South by Southwest), an annual conference in Austin, Texas, that features tech, film, music, education, and culture. Launch Tennessee took over a centrally located event space, transforming it into Tennessee House with Tennessee-branded decor and programming. The programming at the Tennessee House provided a reason for SXSW attendees to want to check it out and to, while they were there, meet the Launch Tennessee team, the…

On Feb. 10, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee presented his 2025 State of the State address along with his FY 2025-2026 budget proposal and legislative agenda. Building on the theme of both his speech and agenda, “Tennessee innovates,” Lee seeks to position the Volunteer State as the epicenter of energy innovation, especially nuclear power. Over the past several years, the governor has presented a vision for Tennessee to lead the nation on nuclear energy initiatives and expand the state’s leadership in “the nuclear energy ecosystem.” In 2023, Tennessee established a Nuclear Energy Advisory Council through an executive order that was tasked to provide the administration with recommendations and guidance to advance the Volunteer State’s nuclear energy innovations and investment. Additionally, the state’s FY 2023-2024 approved budget funded the administration’s $50 million Nuclear Energy Fund to support nuclear power-related businesses and education/training programs across Tennessee. To date, the state has approved $13.5 million in grants, primarily to state universities, within that fund. In this year’s address and budget, the governor proposed several funding…

The Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) recently awarded  $14.5 million in Appalachian Regional Initiative for Stronger Economies (ARISE) grants for five projects. ARISE is ARC’s multi-state initiative that aims to drive large-scale, regional economic transformation through collaborative projects. These awards included $3,980,996 awarded to Morehead State University to build the aerospace workforce in Kentucky and West Virginia. The university will use ARISE funding to expand its SpaceTrek initiative, which addresses the region’s aerospace workforce deficits. Academic institutions will collaborate with industry partners to implement the SpaceTrek summer program and SpacePrep explorations workshops. These programs will introduce pre-college students to higher education opportunities and careers in aerospace and provide an immersive experience in aerospace subdisciplines, including electronics, telecommunications, and data analysis. ARC awarded $2,870,702 to Thrive Regional Partnership to expand three collaborative capacity-building programs in Alabama, Georgia, and Tennessee. The partnership will use ARISE funds to expand three…

The U.S. Department of Treasury has announced its approval of $801.4 million in SSBCI funding for eleven U.S. states and territories: Arkansas, Delaware, Guam, Kentucky, New Jersey, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, Tennessee, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. The addition of these states and territories means 46 states and three territories have been approved for State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI) funding. Treasury has now approved over $7 billion in SSBCI funding. This news comes alongside the upcoming two-year anniversary of the passage of the American Rescue Plan Act on March 11, 2021. Arkansas Arkansas has been approved for up to $81.6 million to operate seven programs: a capital access program, two loan participation programs, two loan guarantee programs and two equity/venture capital programs. The state allocated $15 million to the loan guarantee program and $7.5 million to the loan participation program, with a focus on reaching underserved businesses. The equity/venture capital programs have been allocated a combined $46 million to invest in high growth companies across the state. Delaware …

The recently approved Inflation Reduction Act with new incentives for electric vehicle ownership and energy efficiency is likely to continue a trend among states for the location of major economic development projects, a trend toward everything mega—megasites, megadeals, mega factories, and mega projects. These large-scale manufacturing projects typically feature incentives from state and local governments, such as access to shovel-ready megasites or large tax incentive packages. These new "mega" trends have raised the stakes and increased competition between states as they advocate for the bid of electric vehicle and battery companies looking to expand. The most recent announcement came as Panasonic Corporation committed to building a new $4 billion factory for electric vehicle batteries in Kansas, planning to create over 4,000 jobs. The Panasonic deal featured an $892 million incentive package with payroll rebates, investment tax credits, funds to cover training and education costs, and sales tax exemptions for construction. Kansas was not the only state vying for the Panasonic plant — Oklahoma was planning to offer a $698 million incentive package to draw the company…

As governors continue to roll out their State-of-the State addresses in the month of February, we continue to see a heavy focus on recovering from the pandemic. Given most state’s fiscal condition, governors have been generally hesitant to roll out new initiatives during this time, although broadband continues to receive attention, especially with the renewed attention surrounding its importance during the pandemic. Some states, like Maryland and West Virginia, who are emerging from the pandemic on a better footing than they perhaps anticipated, are ready to forge ahead with tax cuts in an effort to attract business and new residents. Other states, like Illinois, are grappling with projected deficits while trying to maintain services. And a new bond proposal in Maine could help connect workers to jobs in high-growth industries while also spurring development in the state’s industries. This week we catch up with those governors who gave their addresses during these first weeks of February and review each of them for news or initiatives relating to their state’s innovation economy. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, Feb. 2, said she wants to renew the state’s economic development…

In general, the effect of the pandemic on states’ budgets due to the wave of business, retail, and commerce shutdowns, as well as other reduced economic activity across the nation, is not entirely known, or too early to forecast; however, a number of states are beginning to experience the initial impacts of a substantial downturn. With several states having already enacted their 2020-21 budgets, special sessions are expected later this year to deal with declining revenues. Others ended sessions early without a new fiscal year spending plan in place. Many are also acting quickly to help mitigate the effects of lost revenues and an increased demand for services. Some of the states’ impacts and actions are outlined below. Alaska officials report that the drop in global oil prices will likely add $300 million to the state's current year (2020) budget deficit. The Alaska Journal of Commerce reports the state Legislative Finance Division told lawmakers that the state could experience a $600 million revenue reduction in the 2021 fiscal year, which starts July 1. In Arkansas, lawmakers were called into special session to address an estimated $353 million hit to the state’s…

A report on employment trends from hiring firm Robert Half found that 2020 presents greater challenges for employers looking to expand their workforce as the country’s labor market is near full employment and job openings remain at high levels. When looking specifically at technology hiring, the report reveals that in a survey of IT hiring decision makers, 86 percent reported challenges finding skilled workers. Such conditions have many states seeking new ways to address the skills gap and develop their workforce to attract or keep business. Several recent efforts are detailed below. Last month, Pennsylvania’s Keystone Economic Development and Workforce Command Center, a public-private partnership created last year by the governor to study workforce development, presented its first report to the Wolf administration. It found five major barriers to employment and a list of 42 recommendations to address those barriers. Gov. Tom Wolf’s budget proposes investing $14 million to support the recommendations, building on a $124 million investment to fully fund PAsmart, career and technical centers, industry partnerships, and apprenticeships to provide job skills training.…

With nearly 40 of the state governors now having given a state of the state or budget address, innovation themes continue to echo in their reviews of past accomplishments and plans for the coming year. There is a priority on education (both on teacher salaries and preK initiatives as seen in Alabama, in addition to higher education and a focus on its affordability with Connecticut proposing free tuition for community college for recent high school grads and Pennsylvania putting additional dollars into scholarships), energy, workforce, broadband and a special emphasis on distressed communities in Connecticut and Tennessee. While SSTI continues to review the addresses and features excerpts as they relate to innovation intiatives in this series, remaining speeches will be scattered over the coming weeks. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey gave her third state of the state address earlier this month, and presented an agenda that called for changes in the state’s educational system, and growth in broadband and workforce development. Noting that “a world-class workforce begins with a world-class education system,” the governor called for more money to help build a “solid…

Earnings for Appalachian manufacturing workers grew 3.4 percent from 2012 through 2017 to an average of $63,583. The growth is in the Appalachian Regional Commission’s Industrial Make-up of the Appalachian Region, 2002-2017, which reviews employment and wages by sector across the region. Appalachian workers overall saw earnings increase by 3.7 percent over the five years. In the rest of the country, manufacturing wage growth was 1.2 percent or 3.3 percent across all sectors. Wage growth was uneven within the region. Southern Appalachia saw the greatest gains, with 5.2 percent growth, driven in large part by Georgia’s increase of 6.5 percent. Appalachian counties adjacent to metros saw the largest increases (6.4 percent near large metros and 5.8 percent near small ones), although these gains still leave an earnings gap compared to metro-based manufacturing employees in the region. The comparatively strong percentage gains for manufacturing employees in Appalachia has not closed much of the earnings gap with workers outside the region. In 2017, the average manufacturing employee outside of Appalachia earned $79,098 — $15,515 more than those working…

Knowing that research universities are integral to the innovation in this country, states continue their efforts to build the economy by supporting efforts to move the research from the labs to the market. In our ongoing review of state activities in 2019 (see our stories on free tuition offerings, climate change and clean energy), this week we report on new initiatives launched in 2019 that were focused on commercialization of technology. The following programs represent some of those efforts. Alabama Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey participated in a ribbon-cutting ceremony in June for the state’s Invention to Innovation Center (I²C) on the campus of the University of Alabama in Huntsville. The I²C is a regional initiative that will serve as the focal point for incubation, education and support for entrepreneurs across a 15-county region in northern Alabama and south central Tennessee. The program seeks to foster, promote and accelerate the commercialization of technology-based ventures through incubation, co-working, mentorship, funding, and strategic support. The I²C is focused on stimulating the growth of both new and existing regional science and…

This week we nearly finish our state of the state coverage, save two remaining governors (Louisiana and Minnesota) who have yet to present their addresses. In reviewing the speeches for news on innovation efforts, we find education taking the main stage in Florida and Tennessee, while Alabama and Ohio’s governors are hoping to build the state’s workforce, and North Carolina, still recovering from natural disasters, wants to decrease greenhouse gas emissions and provide tuition assistance for community college. Many governors are presenting separate budget addresses, and we will continue to monitor those for news on innovation initiatives. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, in a state reeling from catastrophic tornado damage this week, focused on rebuilding and growing the state economy, in part through technology activities, as well as educational efforts: “As we anticipate the rising demand of the computer science field, we are continuing our efforts to enhance computer science education in Alabama. Last year, I signed legislation establishing the Alabama School of Cyber Technology and Engineering. We also secured additional funding to create the Alabama…