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Deborah Fleischaker has been appointed deputy secretary for the New Mexico Department of Economic Development.

The Greater Baltimore Alliance, now renamed as the Economic Alliance of Greater Baltimore, has appointed David Gillece as chief executive officer and Christian Johansson as managing director.

Maryland's Department of Business and Economic Development has reorganized into three geographically defined divisions. Robert Hannon has been named to run the regional program.

During its annual meeting in December, members of the National League of Cities have elected Charlie Lyons, a selectman for Arlington, MA, to serve a one-year term as president.

The Acting Director for the Idaho Department of Commerce is Roger Madsen. Madsen also is serving as director of the state Department of Labor.

Joe May, president of Colorado's community college system, announced his retirement, effective in February.

The Greater Antelope Valley Economic Alliance has appointed Tony Moon as its new president.

Robert Olsen, the director of the Fitzsimons Redevelopment Authority, will become the head of the Economic Development Administration's regional office in Denver.

Robert Pozen, secretary of economic development for Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, announced his resignation, effective at the end of 2003.

The fifth installment to Walkin' the Tech Talkin' Gov Walk (see the April 17, May 8, June 5 and June 12 issues of the Digest) covers the outcome of the 2006 Massachusetts legislative sess

Four short years ago, 37 states were in fiscal crisis, many making several rounds of deep spending cuts to cope with the most dramatic reduction in revenues in 20 years. In all, more than $15 billion were shaved from state budgets. Twenty-one states experienced negative revenue growth in FY 2003, forcing even deeper cuts. The fiscal winter of '02-'03 slowed many states' strategies for supporting growth in their knowledge-based economies.

A $1.46 million grant from the Economic Development Administration to the Sirti Foundation is making possible a $3 million loan fund to technology companies within a 10-county region of Eastern Washington. The program provides another example of the non-traditional use of EDA funds to support tech-based economic development strategies. In addition, the deal structure may serve as a model to help other public agencies encourage TBED activities typically outside the scope or possibility of many public entities.

Despite industry claims to the contrary, the recovery of the U.S. information technology (IT) sector has not created enough new jobs for IT workers, according to a new report from the Washington Alliance of Technology Workers. Information Technology Labor Markets: Rebounding, but Slowly reveals that the recent increase in IT spending has not led to a full recovery in the labor market.

The federal government distributed $26.7 billion to universities in the U.S. in fiscal year 2003 - a 9.4 percent increase from the FY 2002 total of $24.4 billion, a recently released National Science Foundation report reveals. Federal Science and Engineering Support to Universities, Colleges, and Nonprofit Institutions: Fiscal Year 2003 details federal science & engineering (S&E) activities to the nation's institutions of higher education.

Southern Growth Policies Board, in partnership with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), has designed a survey to identify the needs of small and medium-sized manufacturers in the area of information technology. The 20-question survey takes only a few minutes to complete and the results will be used to develop new programs to help small and medium-sized manufacturers.

The fourth installment to Walkin' the Tech Talkin' Gov Walk (see the April 17 , May 8 and June 5 issues of the Digest) covers the outcomes of the 2006 legislative sessions within Colorado, Iowa, Minnesota and Vermont.

Does increasing a university or community college's involvement in tech-based economic development - through technology incubators or early-stage capital programs - detract from the nonprofit, educational purpose of the institution? Fortunately, for many state and regional TBED strategies, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) says no. The IRS recently released a ruling affirming the nonprofit status of a college foundation planning to unveil a new high-tech incubator and pre-seed capital fund.

Promoting the policies and harnessing the habits that will make innovation central to a Southern way of life requires a fundamental shift in the approach to knowledge itself, says the latest report by the Southern Growth Policies Board.



The report, Innovation with a Southern Accent: The 2006 Report on the Future of the South, offers recommendations for 13 states and Puerto Rico to transition the region into a more knowledgeable, innovative and prosperous South.

[Editor's Note: SSTI is excited to welcome Phillip Battle to its staff as a policy analyst. The author of this article, Phil recently received his Master in Public Affairs degree from the LBJ School at the University of Texas at Austin. His area of research interest is technology policy and economic development.]

The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) recently released advanced real gross state product (GSP) estimates for 2005. According to the data, real GSP grew in all 50 states and the District of Columbia from 2001-2005. Western states dominated the lead in U.S. economic growth, with Nevada incurring the largest increase in real GSP growing from $75.1 billion in 2001 to $96.6 billion in 2005 -- a 28.56 percent change.

The third installment to Walkin' the Tech Talkin' Gov Walk (see the April 17 and May 8 issues of the Digest) covers the outcomes of the 2006 legislative sessions for two states, Illinois and Wisconsin.

With assets totalling more than $15 billion, the Indiana Public Employees Retirement Fund (PERF) has decided to place $100 million into higher-risk equity placements through its first Indiana Investment Fund. The fund will exclusively target venture capital deals within Indiana, according to the PERF news release. Like pension funds in many states, PERF has a requirement to place a certain percentage of its assets in private equity. The PERF goal is 5 percent and includes real estate deals as well.

The opportunity for innovation and the need for angel capital are not limited to the major metropolitan areas and large research universities, as the board of trustees for Taylor University and leaders of the Grant County Economic Growth Council in rural Indiana will attest. The east-central Indiana county is home to just over 70,500 residents and, soon, two angel funds.

Maryland General Assembly approval of a $1 million boost for the Maryland Industrial Partnerships (MIPS) Program, one of the nation's oldest continually run programs to support university-industry research projects leading to technology commercialization, marks a 74 percent increase above the $1.35 million program budget for 2006. The increase was proposed by Gov.

While the Phoenix Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) has the recipe for a creative economy - people in creative occupations, industries with a creative workforce, and an environment that supports creativity - it falls short of the national average in more than 75 percent of all creative occupational categories, a new study by the Maricopa Partnership for Arts and Culture (MPAC) finds.