EDA’s FY12 Report Shows Large Investments in Public Works, Concentration in Several States

The Economic Development Administration (EDA) annual report for FY12 includes a summary of some of the major regional programs and grants that have been awarded over the year, summaries of EDA activities in each state, and a breakdown of EDA investments in each state as well as their specific recipient. SSTI has prepared a table from the data reported. (Note: SSTI received EDA funding in FY12).

The EDA is highlighting three competitive initiatives designed to support “business growth and job creation.” These are the Rural Jobs and Innovation Accelerator Challenge, the Advanced Manufacturing Jobs and Innovation Accelerator Challenge, and the i6 Challenge.

Under the Rural Jobs and Innovation Accelerator Challenge, $9 million was granted to 13 rural partnerships to leverage additional local funding and support industrial activities in the regions.  The Advanced Manufacturing Jobs and Innovation Accelerator Challenge awarded $20 million to 10 public-private partnerships to support job development through service provision, inter-company connections, and the commercialization of research. The i6 Challenge, the third round of these awards, this year provided seven grants to create proof-of-concept centers.

In total, the EDA provided more than $270 million across 655 awards in FY12. This includes more than $19 million in 18 multi-jurisdictional awards that were given to national institutions or cross-state projects. By state, Texas was awarded the largest amount, with $21.2 million, followed by California ($17.8 million), South Carolina ($14.6 million), Arkansas ($10 million), and Oklahoma ($8.9 million). Together, these five states captured nearly 27 percent of the total amount given by EDA for FY12, with multi-jurisdictional awards another 7 percent.  However, among those amounts California received $7.8 million in disaster relief and Arkansas received $8.8 million.  Independent of disaster relief funds, Texas still received the most, followed by South Carolina, California, Illinois, and Pennsylvania.

By number of awards, Texas had 47 separate awards, Missouri, Montana, and Washington had 28, and California had 25.  The largest award category was Economic Development Planning Assistance, which accounted for nearly half of the number of awards given.  However, the largest amount of funding was in the Public Works and Economic Development Assistance category, which totaled more than $129 million, or nearly 48 percent of the total amount awarded.  Disaster relief was another 15.7 percent.  Together, planning and technical assistance awards totaled 21.2 percent of EDA awards.