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The $642 billion FY 2006 budget for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) reflects an increase of $58 billion over FY 2005, most of which occurs in mandatory spending programs such as Medicare. Discretionary portions of the HHS FY06 budget total $67.2 billion, a decrease of 1 percent from FY05.

The FY 2006 discretionary budget request for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is $34.15 billion, 6.6 percent above the comparable enacted FY 2005 appropriation. In FY06, DHS seeks to consolidate the research, development, test and evaluation (RDT&E) activities within the DHS Science and Technology (S&T) Directorate.

Big H, little u, little d may provide the most apt description of the priorities in the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) FY 2006 request, as cuts to the economic development programs are deep. Housing advocates may not entirely agree with that summation as the agency overall takes an 11 percent cut to total $28.51 billion for FY06; however, nearly every major initiative promoting economic development falls victim to the budget knife.

The total FY 2006 budget request for the Department of Interior, as reported in its Budget in Brief, is $14.958 billion, down 6.7 percent from FY 2005. The discretionary budget appropriation request is $10.76 billion, 1 percent less than FY05. There are two research-related items of potential interest:

The Administration's FY 2006 budget request of $59.5 billion for the Department of Transportation (DOT) is 1 percent higher than the FY 2005 appropriation. DOT's request would be distributed across the department's five key strategic objectives as follows:

The Department of Labor's (DOL) discretionary budget request of $11.5 billion for FY 2006 is 4.4 percent less than the FY 2005 appropriation. The agency's payroll, however, would increase by 169 full-time equivalent positions, according to the budget overview.

There are only a few programs in the Treasury Department that SSTI monitors for the tech-based economic development community. All are slated for termination or phaseout.

The Administration's FY 2006 budget request for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is $7.6 billion, a 5.6 percent decrease from the FY 2005 appropriation. However, the agency's science and technology programs would receive $760.6 million, a 2.2 percent increase over the FY05 appropriation.

A $79 million increase is proposed for EPA homeland security efforts, including:

The Administration's FY 2006 budget request for the National Science Foundation (NSF) is $5.605 billion, a 2.4 percent increase above the FY05 appropriation level, but is still lower than the agency's FY04 appropriation of $5.652 billion.

There are three federally established regional commissions and authorities that are dedicated to improving the economic opportunities within specific geographic regions. Two - the Appalachian Regional Commission and the Delta Regional Authority - are dependent on annual appropriations and are looking at reductions in FY 2006. The Tennessee Valley Authority, the oldest and largest of the three, generates its budget primarily through power generation revenues.

The Administration's $593 million FY 2006 request for the Small Business Administration (SBA) represents a 3 percent decrease from the FY 2005 appropriation. Funding levels for selected activities identified as "core programs" in the agency's press release include:

With all of the recent activity from its state legislature, Arkansas will soon possess one of the nation's most comprehensive portfolios of state-supported TBED initiatives. A number of TBED-related acts passed by the Arkansas General Assembly this session have all received Gov. Mike Beebe's signature. The result could be a public injection of up to $140 million for Arkansas's TBED community over the next biennium.

To promote excellence and accelerate innovation in the nation's aerospace, defence, security and space industries, Canada earlier this month launched the Strategic Aerospace and Defence Initiative (SADI) -- a repayable contribution program being administered by Industry Canada's Industrial Technologies Office (ITO).

Several U.S. states have introduced plans in attempts to take the early lead in the country's emerging biofuels industry. For example, in 2006, the Washington legislature approved the initial components of the state's Bioenergy Program. Tennessee Gov.

A $295 million three-part bond referendum package passed by the Maine State Legislature last week includes a number of components central to the state’s TBED strategy, including funds to support continued development of the state’s research enterprise, expanded broadband access and increased rural/economic development financing.

 

One of the most vexing problems facing states, outside of a few well known success stories, is a persistent lack of attention from the venture capital industry. In 2006, almost 60 percent of venture capital investment was concentrated in California and Massachusetts. The other 48 states have had to devise their own strategies to compete with Silicon Valley, Route 128 and each other to gain the attention of potential investors.

The U.S. as a whole showed an increase of 5.41 percent in per capita personal income from fiscal year 2005, according to second quarter 2006 estimates of state personal income data released by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA).

 

Approximately $60 million is expected to be available under a new Advanced Technology Program (ATP) competition to support high-risk industrial R&D projects, the program announced today.

With the close of its 2007 regular session, the New Mexico State Legislature wrapped up "one of the most productive sessions in state history." Those were the words of Gov. Bill Richardson, following the legislature's adjournment last month. The governor had outlined a number of economic development and energy initiatives in his 2007 State of the State Address that he hoped would be brought to bear (see the Jan. 15, 2007 issue of the Digest).

Incentive packages to attract companies are nothing new in economic development. In recent years, though, incentives have been used to recruit technology companies, and these incentive packages are growing in scope and complexity, with some in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Two recent reports that take a close look at experiences in North Carolina and Iowa may be of interest to communities and states using incentive packages to recruit companies to their area.

 

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