State Legislatures, Communities and Universities Take Economy Into Own Hands

The President wants $87 billion for the war in Iraq. Congress is looking at a month-long continuing resolution for the budget since final approval on most appropriation bills is at least that far in the future. Meanwhile, the persistence of the recession, the restructuring of U.S. manufacturing due in part to globalization, and the continued hemorrhaging of tax revenues has led several governors, state legislatures and community leaders to begin rethinking their economic development strategies. The past few months have seen a spate of state and local news on summits, plans and new groups for reorganizing, revamping, recreating or re-energizing public-private economic development efforts.  Below are examples of some of the approaches.

E.D. Getting Higher Priority from North Carolina Legislature

The North Carolina legislature has established a bi-partisan Joint Select Committee on Economic Growth and Development to reinvigorate the state's economic development activities. According to The Raleigh News & Observer, the 20-member committee will consider proposals such as an extended research and development tax credit, more money for business recruitment and a reduction in the state’s corporate income tax. The committee leaders anticipate convening the group regularly before the next legislative session begins next May.

Regional Collaboration Encouraged in Northeast Ohio

Two separate efforts with similar goals were launched this month to try to unite the economic development efforts of the numerous communities and interests of northeast Ohio. The new, business-led Team North East Ohio (Team NEO) received a $1.5 million grant last week from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to help develop and sustain a cooperative economic development strategy for the region. The group is led by the chairman of Akron-based FirstEnergy. Meanwhile, the Cleveland Foundation, in conjunction with five collaborating partners – Business Volunteers Unlimited, Cleveland Bridge Builders, Council Of Smaller Enterprises (COSE), Leadership Cleveland and the President’s Council – started the Civic Innovation Lab to provide support, including mentorship, networks, visibility and funding to individuals with ideas for fostering economic development in Greater Cleveland. The lab's website points out it is not an "incubator for private business, but a vehicle to connect great civic ideas with the right place in the community."

Public Universities Taking Initiative

Further south in Ohio, the Columbus Dispatch reports that Ohio State University Medical Center is feeling a sense of urgency in elevating its competitive position in the biotech race. The public university is planning to sell bonds to pay for a new $151 million biomedical research facility instead of going through the process of getting on the state's biennial bill for capital improvements. The paper quotes a school official, "If we waited 10 years [the anticipated time it would take to get on the capital bill], we'd be so far behind the rest of the country." Access to premium lab and office space in the new facility will be based largely on the amount of research funding faculty can generate.

With the state's leaders focused on the recall, four California research universities and SRI International have joined forces to move more of the schools' medical research into clinical trials and commercialization. The new initiative is called PharmaSTART and offers drug development and consultation services, business consulting services, and access to equity capital. A major goal of PharmaSTART is to promote collaborations between the member organizations, which include Stanford University, the University of California at San Diego, the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF), and the UCSF campus of the California Institute for Quantitative Biomedical Research. The consortium will seek private and public funding, including from the State of California and federal funding agencies.

Tulsa Voters Willing to Pay the Price

Earlier this month, voters in Tulsa approved the Vision 2025 initiative, which is expected to generate $885 million through a one-cent sales tax increase for economic development initiatives. Each element of the four-part package was supported by more than 60 percent of the voters, according to the Tulsa World. Proposition 1 will generate a total of $350 million for the city's bid to attract the Boeing 7E7. Boeing would receive $100 million to conduct research and development and $250 million as part of a no-interest loan, the newspaper reported. More than $100 million of proposition 3 will go toward new facility construction at Tulsa's five public university and community college campuses. To address the quality of life issues required for a competitive economy, Vision 2025 also directs $157.4 million to upgrades for community cultural amenities, including the Oklahoma Aquarium, the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame and the Tulsa Air and Space Museum. The package's passage also triggers $29 million in matching contributions from private sources to the University of Oklahoma-Tulsa.