SSTI Digest

Over the last several months, economic development organizations, universities, and their partners have announced new efforts to create the building blocks for entrepreneurial development in rural communities. Examples include i2e announcing new efforts to expand entrepreneurial support services to rural communities in Oklahoma and three Indiana universities partnering to support startup growth in rural regions across the state. These efforts are intended to leverage the existing skills and resources of these organizations and reformulate them for regions typically left behind by the field.

Oklahoma

As governors and state legislatures continue their negotiations over state budgets, SSTI has reviewed the latest to be signed. The process has proved difficult in more than a few states, with New Mexico having to overcome several stalemates and still facing shortages while in Oklahoma three-fourths of the state agencies are seeing decreased funding due to the state’s $900 million shortfall.

Colorado

Gov. John Hickenlooper signed Colorado’s FY 2018 budget. While the state increased spending by 4 percent overall, few of the state’s investments for innovation were adjusted from the previous year. The Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade received a substantial cut of $8 million, leaving the office with $51.0 million for FY 2018. Within the office, the advanced industries incentive programs received approval to spend up to $14 million (reduction of $1.5 million) pending the availability of funds, while small business development centers ($94,144), Leading Edge grants ($75,976) and Rural Jump Start ($80,983) all received level funding.

The perils of regional economies being too dependent on single industry clusters, particularly as it affects the financing of state governments, are playing out in the Great Plains. Kansas, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma and Wyoming have been or still are experiencing recessions, beginning as early as spring 2015 for two, according to a new analysis by Jason P. Brown for the Tenth Federal Reserve District.

Testing two different approaches for assessing economic status, Brown’s review of national and state recession occurrences during the past 36 years found states whose economies are heavily dependent on the energy sector experience more recessions than the nation overall. Fortunately, for most of the energy states, recessions are usually shorter in duration than national downturns.

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.

Alabama

Gov. Robert Bentley’s FY 2018 budget would boost spending on education, provide government workers a cost of living adjusted raise, and remove the sales tax on groceries. Notable for technology-based economic development is $2.9 million for the Alabama Innovation Fund in FY 2018, an increase of 20.1 percent from FY 2017. The fund operates two programs: a renewal program, which helps support university high technology infrastructure, and a research program, which allocates funding for commercialization and university-industry partnerships.   Additionally, the Alabama Technology Network would receive $4.9 million in FY 2018, the same as it received in the previous fiscal year.

Connecticut

Over the last several months, the Economic Development Administration (EDA) has announced millions of dollars in grants to support tech-based economic development efforts in communities across the country (see recent Digest articles from August 18 and September 8). The most recent announcements of grant funding will provide targeted funding to expand and build facilities that support entrepreneurial/business development in Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Wyoming as well as workforce efforts in South Carolina. Each of the grants also addresses a specific regional need or key industries including growth in advanced manufacturing sectors, attraction of foreign direct investment, and support for key regional tech-focused industries such as agriculture and healthcare.

Oklahoma

SSTI’s analysis of gubernatorial addresses, strategic plans and budget proposals continues this week with highlights from Alabama, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Tennessee. Governors are facing difficult fiscal situations in several of these states, often scaling back tech-based economic development efforts. Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam, however, is using a fiscal surplus to invest in higher education and regionally focused economic initiatives.

Alabama

On Monday, Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin signed a $7.1 billion fiscal year 2016 budget (HB 2242) that includes a 3.5 percent reduction in base higher education funding. A portion of this reduction was offset by an agreement to pick up the cost of higher education bond debt service, which brings the net percentage reduction closer to 2.44 percent, according to the The Oklahoman. K-12 education funding will remain at current levels.

The budget includes $16 million in appropriated funds for the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology OCAST). Another $4.8 million in dedicated and other funds will be provided through the state's Research Support Revolving Fund to finance OCAST duties.

This week, governors in Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Wisconsin unveiled their budget proposals. Included in the governors’ recommendations are several cases of agency restructuring and funds for workforce development, innovation tax credits, and other TBED-relevant issues.

Michigan

Gov. Rick Snyder took an unconventional approach to issuing his $54 billion proposed FY2016 budget, releasing overviews on the popular blog-publishing platform Medium.  More than three-fourths of the governor’s proposed total spending is dedicated to education and health and human services. Under the budget recommendation, universities would receive an operations increase of $28 million (2 percent) and would be required to hold any tuition increases to less than 2.8 percent in order to receive new funding. 

SSTI's Tech Talkin' Govs series has returned as governors across the country formally convene 2015 legislative sessions. The series highlights new and expanded TBED proposals from governors' State of the State, Budget and Inaugural addresses.

The fifth installment of this year’s series includes excerpts from speeches delivered in Illinois, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Tennessee. Read the first, second, third and fourth installments of this year’s series.

This article is part of SSTI's series on trends in state technology-based economic development legislation in 2014. Read our other entries covering legislative action on patent reform, research capacity, technology commercialization & infrastructure, tax credits & STEM and manufacturing & clusters.

The fifth installment of SSTI’s Tech Talkin’ Govs series includes excerpts from speeches delivered in Connecticut, Maine, Oklahoma, and Tennessee. Read part I, part II, part III and part IV.  

Connecticut

Gov. Dan Malloy, State of the State Address, Feb. 6, 2014

“Here are three ways we can continue helping employers to grow jobs this session.

“First, we can continue to fund the Small Business Express program, which has a proven record of success.

Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin announced that Jonna Kirschner, executive director of the Oklahoma Commerce Department, will serve on a transition team to establish a new workers’ compensation system. Vaughn Clark , the Commerce Department’s director of community development, was named as interim executive director.

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper named Mark Sirangelo, who is head of Sierra Nevada Corp., as chair of the Colorado Innovation Network and the state's new chief innovation officer.

John Rhodes has been appointed as president and CEO of NYSERDA.