Connecticut and Wisconsin both ended their protracted budget negotiations with the governors signing budgets in late September and late October. Faced with budget constraints and uncertainty about the spending plan, Connecticut’s funding for economic and community development is decreasing along with funding for the state’s MEP center and Manufacturing Supply Chain program, with no general funds provided for them in the second year of the biennium.

Ten Connecticut startups competed in a $10,000 pitch competition at CTNext last week, but the five-year-old state initiative finds itself the winner of a much higher-stakes appraisal. Gov. Dannel Malloy approved the FY 2017 state budget bill on June 2, which will make CTNext an independent organization with $67 million in bonding support.

While the recent Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) has some economists concerned that the U.S. economy is running out of qualified workers to fill existing openings, several states have announced workforce programs that are intended to address the skills-gap and build the talent pipeline in their respective states.

Over the last month, the Economic Development Administration (EDA) announced over $8 million in grants to expand entrepreneurial and business support services in Alabama, New York, and Texas including:

On September 2, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced $7.2 million in funding for the newly established Texas Industry Cluster Innovative Academies. An element of Gov. Abbott’s Tri-Agency Workforce Initiative established in March 2016, the initiative will provide competitive grant funding to establish Innovative Academies within Texas high schools to provide students with learning opportunities in high-demand occupations while earning college course credit prior to high school graduation.

With the latest round of state of the state or budget addresses, the states’ governors focused on their states’ financial situation. Education and economic development were still on the minds of leaders in Maine, Maryland, and Texas. With this fifth installment, less than 10 governors have yet to deliver their addresses in the coming weeks or months.

In the latest round of state budget proposals, TBED initiatives receive mixed reviews. Some governors are boosting funding while others in cash-strapped states are proposing cuts.

With job growth for middle-skill level jobs slowing, the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas and Austin-based nonprofit Center for Public Policy Priorities studied the nation’s best practices and surveyed regional workforce boards in Texas to determine how communities there are addressing the challenge. Their findings are detailed in the report, Regional Talent Pipelines: Collaborating with Industry to Build Opportunities in Texas, released last month.

SSTI again presents its latest round of Tech Talkin’ Govs, where governors’ comments about TBED issues are excerpted from their state of the state and inaugural addresses. Today’s roundup includes STEM spending and workforce development in Idaho, education in Arizona, manufacturing in Connecticut and a nod to technological change in North Dakota, inaugural addresses from new governors in Vermont and Indiana, and more reports from governors who gave their addresses on the 10th. Next week the Digest will continue with Part II of Tech Talkin’ Govs featuring news from the next round of addresses.

After training nearly 80 PhD scientists and engineers in the craft of policy making, the California Council on Science and Technology (CCST) has awarded planning grants to nine other states to evaluate the potential to create a policy fellowship for scientists and engineers in their state capital. The new one-year grant, which is administered by CCST and funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and the Simons Foundation, will support teams in Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, and Washington as they work on feasibility studies and other strategic steps toward creating science fellowships in their state policy arenas.

On Tuesday, 36 states held gubernatorial elections. Though it was a good night overall for incumbents, 10 new governors will take office next year. Republicans picked up four governorships that are currently under Democratic control, including Arkansas, Illinois, Maryland and Massachusetts, while Democrats managed a win in currently Republican Pennsylvania. New governors will also take office in Arizona, Hawaii, Nebraska, Rhode Island and Texas.

Now that many governors have signed spending bills and legislative sessions are drawing to a close, the SSTI Digest will check on the status of proposals related to the innovation economy, and examine the state of technology-based economic development funding in the states. This week, we review spending bills in Alaska, Connecticut, Louisiana, South Carolina and Vermont.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has signed legislation that (SB 632) establishes a new Governor's University Research Initiative and ends the state's Emerging Technology Fund (ETF). Created in 2004, the ETF provided financial support for research partnerships at private companies and state universities through equity investments and grants. The new initiative will not take equity in companies, but instead will focus on university research and commercialization grants.

Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy recently announced the launch of a manufacturing apprenticeship program that will provide wage subsidies and tuition reimbursement to participating students. The effort will begin as a two-year, $7.8 million initiative, focused on advanced manufacturing industries, including aerospace, medical devices, composite materials, digital manufacturing and others. Funding will derive from the state’s Manufacturing Innovation Fund.

In a recent comparative study of state S&T policy dynamics in Georgia, Missouri and Texas, authors Jarrett Warshaw and James Hearn examine the nature of state efforts intended to bring together government, universities and industry to support innovation at publically funded universities and spur economic development.

The recent uptick in U.S. manufacturing activity, along with the attention generated by additive manufacturing and the Makers movement, has led to an increase in state initiatives to help cash in on this growth. In recent months, New York, Connecticut, Maryland, and Arizona have all taken steps to build stronger manufacturing sectors through research collaborations, grants and tax credits. Leaders in Colorado and New Jersey have pursued their own cluster-specific efforts to build stronger high-tech industries.

On the heels of a recent memo from the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) highlighting the difficulty middle-skill workers are having finding a route into the modern economy, reports from two tech hotspots suggest that local action is needed to ensure that tech success translates into widespread economic prosperity.

Lawmakers included $30 million in the recently enacted FY15 budget to establish a fund to help smaller manufacturers modernize and grow with priority given to companies located in the state’s 42 communities designated as historic manufacturing hubs. The budget also increases by $100 million the bond authorization for the Manufacturing Assistance Act, a program for larger companies that provides incentive-driven direct loans for projects with strong economic development potential. The proposals were part of Gov. Dan Malloy’s workforce development agenda outlined earlier this year.