The U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced 51 grant recipients will share $6.1 million for rural economic development. Funding for the projects comes from the USDA's Rural Business Opportunity Grants Rural Development and Rural Business Enterprise Grant programs.
A new report assessing Maine's seven targeted technology sectors represents the first systematic attempt to analyze the growth of the state's industry clusters. The report, Assessing Maine's Technology Clusters, was prepared for the Maine Science and Technology Foundation (MSTF) by the University of Southern Maine's Muskie School.
Florida's High Tech Corridor and LaGrange, Georgia, have been named two of the world's top seven "intelligent" communities in a recent report by the Intelligent Community Forum (ICF), a project of the New York-based telecommunication group World Teleport Association.
The state technology-based economic development community is losing one of its most dynamic and longest-serving leaders by the end of the year. Jamie Kenworthy, executive director of the Alaska Science & Technology Foundation (ASTF), has announced his retirement effective December 1.
Enterprise Florida has named Darrell Kelley as its new president and chief executive officer effective August 5. Kelley currently is the president of the defense-related technology incubator, MILCOM Technologies.
Enterprise Florida has named Darrell Kelley as its new president and chief executive officer effective August 5. Kelley currently is the president of the defense-related technology incubator, MILCOM Technologies.
Two of North Carolina's state-created non-profit science and technology centers announced new leaders last week. David Rizzo is the new president and chief executive officer of MCNC. and Leslie Alexandre will serve in the same position for the North Carolina Biotechnology Center.
Matthew McClorey is the new president and chief executive officer of Kansas Innovation Corp. McClorey formerly served as vice president for business development & portfolio management at KTEC, a position now filled by Michael Peck.
In honor of Independence Day, no SSTI Weekly Digest will be published July 5.
Venture capital investments in Montana may have become a little more attractive last Friday as the Montana House of Representatives passed the Montana Equity Capital Investment Act, moving the legislation to Gov. Brian Schweitzer for his consideration and expected signature.
Tech firms in New Mexico received happy tax news on April 4 as Gov. BIll Richardson signed several bills to encourage economic growth across New Mexico.
New York's Empire Zones Program dodged a veto from Gov. George Pataki as an agreement was met with the legislature to restructure the program. The state budget, signed into law last week, extends the program and allows for an additional 12 zones to be created throughout the state.
Legislation that would extend and expand the federal research tax credit was introduced in the U.S. Senate last month. Senate Bill 627 seeks to make permanent the research credit that was first enacted in 1981 and is set to expire Dec. 31, 2005. The bill, sponsored by Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), also would provide an alternative simplified credit for qualified research expenses and increase the rates of the alternative incremental credit.
Do tax credits pave the way for more investment in R&D and equity investments in new enterprises? Or, do they reward companies and venture capitalists for investments they would have made anyway?
Discussions on these questions can become quite heated and fueled by data supportive of both sides, as two new academic analyses demonstrate.
Gross State Product (GSP) is considered, at least in theory, to be an effective measure of the "value added" by a state's economy. That is, the figure represents the sum of all net industrial activity within the state, where net activity is defined as total outputs (sales or receipts and other operating income, commodity taxes, and inventory change) minus total inputs (consumption of goods and services purchased from other industries or imported).
While tight state budgets have slowed the number of tech-based economic development programs being created by states, Kentucky and Oregon have both approved new laws designed to encourage the growth of technology companies.
Publisher's Note: While more than 40 states are working to encourage the creation and growth of biotechnology companies, as we have said over the years, the U.S. is competing in a global economy. This is just as true in technology as in textiles. The fact that the recently concluded BIO annual conference was held in Toronto only underscores the point. Over the years, the SSTI Weekly Digest has featured selected international initiatives as a gentle reminder to policymakers that the U.S.
A study released by the Beacon Hill Institute at Suffolk University in Boston is one of the more recent efforts to examine all aspects of U.S. states and their economies. Entitled State Competitiveness Report 2001, the study defines competitiveness as the ability to ensure and sustain a high level of per capita income and its continued growth.
Videoconferencing, videotelephony, Internet-based audio and video entertainment, local wireless data services and telecommuting — all are part of the "last mile" broadband services that Charles Ferguson assesses in a recent working paper for The Brookings Institution.
The National Science Foundation has released a new set of statistical tables that show research and development (R&D) funding levels, reported by 31 federal agencies for the last three fiscal years.
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Tenants of the Sante Fe Business Incubator have seen their one-story building increase from 10,000 sq. ft. to 30,000 sq. ft., according to a story by the Albuquerque Journal. The expansion is part of a $2.5 million project funded by the federal Economic Development Administration (EDA), the Regional Development Corporation and other agencies.
One of the most widely used barometers of states' relative positions in technology-based economies has been updated and expanded. The 2002 State New Economy Index: Benchmarking Economic Transformation in the States, published by the Progressive Policy Institute's Technology and New Economy Project (PPI) and released online this week, offers an innovation-oriented public policy framework for the states to foster success in the New Economy.
The results of Tuesday's primary election in Maine reveal the state's voters continue to be committed to improving their economy through technology-based economic development. Winning approval at the ballot was Question 2, allocating $35 million in bond revenues for 11 specific projects - a majority of which were tied directly to research and technology-based economic development.
The Illinois General Assembly has passed legislation to encourage venture capital investment in technology businesses across the state. HB3212 creates the Technology Development Fund, which permits the State Treasurer to use up to 1 percent of the state's total investment portfolio for equity investments through Illinois venture capital firms.