The first two installments of SSTI's annual look at how TBED will play in the 2006 legislative priorities of the governors can be found in the Digest archives on our website: http://www.ssti.org/Digest/digest.htm

Delaware

As the angel investment community continues to evolve from individual investors to sophisticated angel investment groups, the Kauffman Foundation and the Angel Capital Association (ACA) have jointly published a new guide designed to help angels form the most effective angel organizations for their communities.

While rural regions strive to establish basic high-speed Internet connections, larger cities such as St. Louis, Oklahoma City and Roanoke, Va., are looking to establish free, wireless Internet access across several blocks to encourage economic development. Recent reports show efforts are underway to speed the technology's deployment in each of the metro areas.

The Kauffman Foundation of Kansas City announced on Monday it will award grants of up to $5 million to 5-7 U.S. universities to make entrepreneurship education a common and accessible campus-wide opportunity. The Foundation works with partners to encourage entrepreneurship across America.

The St. Louis BioBelt announced this week it is well along in launching four new initiatives designed to position the region as a "location of choice" for start-up and evolving plant and life science companies.

A Blueprint for Prosperity and Jobs, a comprehensive strategic plan to foster and sustain job growth, business success and community vitality in Missouri, has been released by the Missouri Department of Economic Development. The product of two years of research, the plan addresses Missouri's need to focus its resources on building a knowledge-based economy, with emphasis on businesses that generate key technologies and have tremendous growth potential.

Bill Duncan is the first president of the Kansas City Area Life Sciences Institute, which held its inaugural event at the end of March.

Amid criticism from taxpayers, legislators in Hawaii agreed to renew the widely debated bill that extends high-technology tax credit for another five years, without a provision requiring the disclosure of companies that receive the credits, the Honolulu Advertiser recently reported.

Arizona taxpayers paid at least $100 million for the TGen Institute. The east coast version of Scripps cost Florida a cool $500-plus million. How much should Kansas City expect to pay the Stowers Institute for Medical Research to double the size of its 600,000 sq. ft. research facility instead of locating a second campus elsewhere?

Not a dime.

As promised in her 2004 State of the State Address, Gov. Ruth Ann Minner released a New Economy Initiative last week that includes several new elements to encourage economic growth in Delaware. The $34 million package is expected to generate at least $16 million more in federal and private match. Many of the elements of the plan were recommended by the governor's Strategic Economic Council.

This is the third in a series of articles as SSTI continues its look at the prominence of tech-based economic development in the Inaugural, State of the State and Budget Addresses given by the nation's governors. Highlights from this week's speeches are provided below.

Tech-based economic development remains high on the agendas of the most of the governors who gave State of the State or Budget Addresses this week. Selected excerpts are provided below:

Kelvin Simmons is the new director of the Missouri Department of Economic Development, replacing Joe Driskell who held the position for 10 years. Simmons had been serving as chairman of the state's Public Service Commission.

The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation awarded on Monday $25 million in grants to eight U.S. universities that pledged to make entrepreneurship education available across campus. The selected universities, shown with their award amounts, are:

Secures State as Pilot Site for FastTrac™

Coming soon to an island near you — business development services. That could be the sales pitch for a new development within the High Technology Development Corporation (HTDC), Hawaii's lead tech-based economic development agency.

Not all of the pieces critical to building an innovation-based economy have to cost hundreds of millions of dollars, as might be suggested in the Florida and Pennsylvania stories above. Gov. Matt Blunt's Feb. 2 call for the state to provide $2 million for a new Missouri Life Science Incubator - designed to help researchers move their science from the laboratory to commercial businesses - provides a case in point.

Judy McKinney-Cherry is the new director of the Delaware Economic Development Office.

John Wik, director of Delaware's economic development office, is resigning in September to pursue interests in the private sector.