SSTI Digest

With less money to spend on risky endeavors, many states are taking more targeted approaches toward economic development, seeking out sectors of the economy they consider most likely to grow and be sustainable beyond current conditions. In Hawaii, for example, lawmakers established an Aerospace Advisory Committee this session seeking long-term growth in aerospace-related industries. Missouri legislators, meanwhile, passed an "emergency jobs bill" expanding tax credits for technology business projects, and North Dakota lawmakers increased funding for agricultural research and infrastructure. The following overview provides highlights of approved budgets and legislation from the 2009 sessions in Hawaii, Missouri and North Dakota.

Hawaii
Lawmakers agreed to a scaled-back restructuring plan for the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT), separating one division from the department and transferring two attached agencies to other departments.

In a special session on Tuesday, the Vermont Legislature enacted the state's FY10 budget, overriding last week's veto by Governor Jim Douglas. The budget eliminates or reduces funding for many programs related to economic development and TBED, cutbacks which were cited as concerns by Gov. Douglas in his veto announcement.

The $4.5 billion budget includes $4 million in economic development incentives to be administered through the Vermont Economic Development Authority (VEDA), significantly less than the $11 million proposed by the governor. The Vermont Telecommunications Authority (VTA) will receive only $500,000, which the governor says will effectively shut down the organization by September. VTA has played an integral role in the state's unfinished plan to provide border-to-border cell phone and wireless data access.

Can you afford to miss out on valuable publicity for your organization's outstanding accomplishments, particularly as legislators look for places to cut spending?

SSTI's Excellence in TBED Award can help you build recognition for your organization and gain support to continue your critical tech-based economic development efforts.

Every group working toward building a tech-based economy has a story tell, and we want to hear yours. There is still time to apply for the most prestigious recognition in the TBED field. Simply submit a five-page narrative describing your organization's most successful efforts by the June 16 deadline.

Your application will be evaluated by a committee of distinguished policymakers and practitioners serving as judges. Winners will be recognized during a highly-anticipated ceremony at SSTI's annual conference Oct. 22-23 in Overland Park, KS.

More information about the awards is available at: www.sstiawards.org.

Gov. Charlie Crist signed Florida's $66.5 billion 2009-10 budget into law last week, providing a mixed bag of funding outcomes for the state's existing economic development programs.

The two main components of the Florida Biomedical Research Programs administered by the Florida Department of Health emerge with large funding increases. The James and Esther King Biomedical Research Program will be given $27.2 million from the state biomedical research trust fund in FY09-10, up from $9.9 million in the previous year. Similarly, the Bankhead-Coley Cancer Research Program will receive $25.0 million, an increase from $9.0 million last year.

The Angel Capital Association's (ACA) latest report on angel group confidence finds little consensus about the state of the industry. While 40 percent believe that their total number of investments and their total investment dollars will decrease in 2009, 30.7 percent believe that their portfolio will increase, 23.1 percent believe it will stay the same.

The results, when compared to findings from a similar survey ACA conducted in November 2008, suggest the angel community is becoming more certain in their outlook on 2009. That might be expected, now that we are five months into the year, but no real trends are appearing other than the number of angels seeing declines is growing at a faster pace than the number expecting growth. In November, only 34.4 percent expected lower deals and yields and only 20.4 percent expected increases.

Compiling SBIR Phase I award and proposal statistics by state for fiscal year 2008, SSTI finds the 10 states with the most awards in FY 2008 were California (688), Massachusetts (476), Virginia (224), New York (195), Colorado (182), Maryland (156), Texas (140), Pennsylvania (129), Ohio (120) and Florida (102). Compared to the top states for FY07, New York moved into the fourth position from sixth place last year and Pennsylvania had slightly more awards than Ohio, moving Pennsylvania up one position from last year and pushing Ohio down to ninth.

J. Mike Books is leaving his post with the Indiana Health Industry Forum to become the first economic development director for the city of Columbia, Missouri. He also will serve as president of the Regional Economic Development Inc. Brooks will assume his new responsibilities on July 15.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the appointment of Judith Canales as Administrator for Rural Business and Cooperative programs in USDA's Rural Development agency.

Donald Cardon, who has been serving as director of the Arizona Department of Housing since March, was named director of the Arizona Department of Commerce.