Gubernatorial Election Results for 11 Races

Going into yesterday's elections, it was clear at least five states would have freshmen governors as three incumbents chose not to run for re-election and two incumbents lost their parties’ nominations to seek new terms. The five states were Missouri, Montana, Utah, Washington and West Virginia.

With the tallying of the votes, the number had grown to seven new governors as incumbents in New Hampshire and Indiana were unseated by successful challenges. Winning re-election were four sitting governors: Ruth Minner in Delaware, Mike Easley in North Carolina, John Hoeven in North Dakota, and Jim Douglas in Vermont.

At press time, no winner had been declared in the extremely close Washington race for governor. Republican Dino Rossi was ahead of Democrat Christine Gregoire by four one-hundredths of a percent at the last count. (see http://vote.wa.gov for more information)

Four of the six new governors in the decided races bring a change in party-affiliation to their governors mansions. Democrats took control in Montana and New Hampshire, while Republicans claimed Indiana and Missouri.

So what have the freshmen governors proposed for their states regarding programs, policies and initiatives to encourage knowledge-based economic growth? Time will tell, but drawing only from the candidates' official campaign websites, SSTI has compiled the following information:

Indiana

Former director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget Mitch Daniels (R) plans to encourage private investment by providing automatic property tax phase-in on all new investment in job-creating business property. Daniels also wants to increase Indiana’s research and development (R&D) tax credit to 15 percent, to apply the state's sales tax exemption to R&D, and to foster the development of regional venture capital funds. He promised also to create a unit in state government dedicated to securing federal funding in the form of procurement and grants, with particular attention to federal R&D funding.

Daniels has proposed the state establish a Motor Sports Tech Park devoted to R&D, testing facilities, and motor sports manufacturers. He also wants to extend Indiana's venture capital tax credit to qualified motor sports entities and to encourage state universities to partner with technology parks in providing high tech motor sports training and internship programs.

Drawing from the model adopted by neighboring Michigan, Daniels also plans to expand high-speed Internet access across the state through the appointment of a chief technology officer and the creation of a Broadband Finance Authority to guarantee low-interest loans to underserved communities.

Under the "More Ideas" section of his jobs platform, Daniels proposes convening "regular meetings of Indiana’s university presidents to review the schools’ progress in new business formation, patents, and technology transfer revenues, and encourage curriculum enhancements to foster entrepreneurship in tomorrow’s business leaders."

Missouri

Secretary of State Matt Blunt (R) is proposing a new-hire tax incentive to reward small business owners and entrepreneurs that are taking significant steps in hiring new employees, and a job training tax incentive to offset the cost of enhancing the skills of employees in order to develop the workforce. In terms of higher education, Blunt proposes increased funding for state colleges and universities and insulating higher education from spending cuts. He also plans to make improvements to MOST, the state’s college savings plan, by modeling upgrades on practices from the best 529 plans in America.

Using licensing revenues of $20 million from commercialization of Wisconsin universities' technologies as a benchmark, and based on Wisconsin having a similar population level as Missouri, Blunt suggests the state "establish the goal of increasing commercialization of technology developed at Missouri's public colleges and universities, creating a valuable income stream from which the institution and the state as a whole can benefit."

Montana

Brian Schweitzer (D) plans to create an office of venture capital within the governor's office to promote start-up companies. He also plans to continue state support for Tech Ranch, a Montana State University program with a record of incubating start-up companies and commercializing university-based research. In addition, Schweitzer said, "We will help companies develop products in the private sector that evolve from our public research efforts."

He wants to restore the state's contribution levels for funding higher education, particularly at the state technical and community colleges. He wants to encourage more Montana high school students to attend technical or community college, mentioning specific fields of need for Montana businesses, such as: information technologies, electronics, civil engineering technologies, heating and air conditioning, plumbing, auto repair, specialized lathe operation, specialized welding, and the operation of other specialized machinery.

Schweitzer also plans to focus on hydrogen power development and aggressively compete for research capital from both the private and public sectors for training leaders in hydrogen technology. He would like to work with the tribal nations to encourage economic development, using alternative energy as an example of an attractive starting point.

New Hampshire

John Lynch (D), chairman of the University System Board of Trustees, proposes to invest in higher education to increase its affordability and accessibility for all New Hampshire citizens, noting the adverse effects of recent budget cuts. He has promised to veto any legislation that cuts state education K-12 aid.

Lynch also will seek to attract private sector investments in new energy technologies such as wind, biomass and solar power. After developing a State Energy Plan, he plans to identify new industries and new technologies that will generate renewable power sources.

Utah

Jon Huntsman Jr. (R) has outlined an economic revitalization plan that touches on many key elements of tech-based economic development and cluster-based growth. He would like to revise the state's tax code and tax incentive structure to encourage and reward high-wage job creation. Huntsman would revamp the state R&D tax credit to make it refundable, more beneficial for key industries such as biotechnology, and more flexible for small to mid-sized companies.

Huntsman has also promised to "streamline Utah's technology transfer process at our research universities to make it effective for business creation." He supports "substantial" funding for the Centers of Excellence Programs and plans to appoint a joint state/private task force to raise money to endow 30 new chairs in strategic technology and research areas within Utah's colleges and universities.

To encourage entrepreneurship, Huntsman would eliminate corporate tax on all businesses with less than $5 million in revenues for their first five years. He wants to provide support to new and existing angel and venture funds, and to expand the state's new fund of funds legislation to specifically target mezzanine and middle-stage financing.

Washington

State Senator DinoRossi (R) plans to free businesses of unnecessary bureaucracy and allow them to grow and create new jobs through enacting a systems-wide reform to reduce regulations. He also plans to establish a regulatory reform office to eliminate regulations that hurt jobs and business growth and begin a proactive, aggressive effort through the Governor’s Office to recruit and retain businesses.

Attorney General Christine Gregoire (D) wants to transform Washington into the nation’s leader in life sciences through the creation of a $1 billion public/private life sciences discovery fund, financed through the state's tobacco settlement money. Her plans include the creation of a sponsored advanced research credit to attract new jobs and bring industry research to the state. Also on Gregoire’s agenda is regionalizing state economic development efforts, expanding workforce training programs at community and technical colleges, and providing brief tax credits to businesses investing in higher education skill sets.

West Virginia

Secretary of State Joe Manchin (D) plans to implement a clustering approach in West Virginia for key industries, such as polymers, speciality chemicals, biometrics and homeland security. Manchin would work with regional public and private stakeholder around the state to identify the appropriate clusters and the strategic needs to be addressed.