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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The Bush Administration's first budget request offers a mixed bag for state, local, and non-profit practitioners and policymakers in tech-based economic development. In research categories, the budget reflects the Administration's research emphasis in defense, biotechnology, and life sciences. The budget also reorganizes the nation's energy research priorities. Most other research categories were held at FY 2001 funding levels or received modest increases or cuts.
Research funding levels, with the exception of $150 million in Congressional earmarks, remain relatively flat between FY 2001 appropriations and the President's FY 2002 request. Economic development and Digital Divide programs, on the other hand, take several hits. Selected agency program highlights include:
The total agency budget request is $4.8 billion, $300 million less than the FY 2001 appropriation level. The majority of the reduction is absorbed by elimination of new project funding for the Advanced Technology Program, a 67 percent cut or $30 million for the Technology Opportunities Program, and a $77 million cut in Economic Development Administration programs. Selected Commerce program highlights include:
The Administration budget request calls for a $2.6 billion increase for missile defense alternatives and new technology development. The President plans to increase military research by $20 billion over the next five years. Research, Development, Testing & Evaluation (6.1, 6.2, and 6.3 spending categories) would grow by only two percent in FY 2002, however. The American Institute of Physics reports the final Defense budget request will be released on May 15.
The agency's total FY 2002 budget request of $19.2 billion reflects a drop of 2.3 percent. The DOE science budget would increase to $3.16 billion, representing an increase of one-tenth of one percent. Shifts within the R&D budget reflect the President's priorities in fossil fuel research: $150 million in new matching federal funds will support the Clean Coal Power Initiative. Funding for Biological and Environmental Research, on the other hand, falls by more than eight percent.
The Administration's FY 2002 budget request of $7.3 billion is $56 million, or 0.08 percent, higher than the FY 2001 appropriation. Funding for EPA science programs would be cut by $27 million or nine percent. Highlights of specific programs within the science budget include:
The Administration’s budget request includes a 13.8 percent increase of $2.8 billion in biomedical research within the National Institutes of Health. Not to be outdone, the Senate has already passed a budget resolution calling for an additional $700 million in NIH funding for FY 2002.
Total funding for the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program is reduced by $9.7 million or 0.3 percent over FY 2001 levels. A new $80 million Community Technology Centers initiative within the CDBG program budget will provide competitive grants to support the development and expansion of technology centers in high poverty urban areas. The budget request says the new centers will enhance the Dept.
The Administration's $14.5 billion request for NASA reflects an increase of just under two percent over the FY 2001 appropriations. While funding for the Science, Aeronautics and Technology unit of the budget would grow from $7.067 billion in FY 2001 to $7.192 billion in FY 2002, the distribution of funding across areas within the unit shifts:
NSF would receive $4.47 billion dollars in FY2002, up $56.1 million (or 1.3 percent) from FY2001 under the President’s budget request. S&T highlights are:
The Administration's budget request eliminates the New Markets Venture Capital Program, the New Markets and the Venture Capital Technical Assistance Grants. The programs are designed to increase access to equity capital and technical assistance to women, minorities and to businesses located in low- and moderate-income rural areas and inner cities.
The FY 2002 budget for Transportation proposes $59.5 billion, the highest funding level in the Department’s history. A summary of research and technology related programs follows:
Whether it is "pink slip parties" in San Diego, the Washington DC beltway, or Chicago to encourage networking and placement of laid-off information technology (IT) workers or Wall Street analysts lamenting the condition of the tech-related stocks, much of the talk in the IT hot spots of the U.S. has been doom and gloom. Many other areas of the country, though, whose economies do not have a preponderance of dot-com companies that went bust are still trying hard to educate and retain IT workers.