SSTI Digest

Tuesday's elections will allow the Democrats in Congress to expand their majorities in both the House and the Senate. With several races still to be decided, the exact composition of the House is undetermined, although Democrats picked up at least 18 seats, according to the Washington Post. As of Thursday afternoon, there are 57 seats in the Senate for Democrats and those who caucus with the Democratic party, 40 seats for the Republicans, and 3 seats yet to be decided - with Georgia going to a special runoff later this month, Minnesota heading for a recount, and Alaska too close to call.

The outcome of Tuesday's election resulted in several wins and some defeats for TBED among the more than 150 ballot measures presented to voters across the nation. Outlined below are the unofficial election results of select ballot measures from each state's respective election office and local media reports as of Wednesday, Nov. 5. More detailed information on the measures is provided in last week's issue of the Digest, which is available at: http://www.ssti.org/Digest/2008/102908.htm#election.

Arkansas
Voters approved 63 percent to 37 percent a constitutional amendment authorizing the General Assembly to establish, operate and regulate state lotteries to fund scholarships and grants for residents enrolled in two- and four-year colleges and universities in the state. Voters also approved a measure to shift the state's budgeting from a two-year cycle to an annual cycle.

Eleven gubernatorial elections were held across the U.S. on Tuesday, resulting in the selection of three new governors - with TBED initiatives spread throughout their campaigns' messages.

Only one of the races resulted in a change of party affiliation in the top state position, Missouri, where Democrat Jay Nixon defeated Republican Congressman Kenny Hulshof after current-Governor Matt Blunt declared he would not seek another term. Democrats now hold twenty-nine governorships, expanding on their significant gains in 2006. Governors retaining their seats include John Hoeven (R-ND), Christine Gregoire (D-WA), Brian Schweitzer (D-MT), Jon Huntsman (R-UT), Joe Manchin (D-WV), Mitch Daniels (R-IN), John Lynch (D-NH), and Jim Douglas (R-VT).

Democrats took control of five legislative chambers in Tuesday's elections: Delaware House, Nevada Senate, New York Senate, Ohio House, and Wisconsin Assembly. The Republicans picked up control of four chambers: Montana Senate, Oklahoma Senate, and both the House and Senate of Tennessee. Two houses, the Alaska Senate and the Montana House, are now tied, according to information compiled by the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) and published reports.
 
Starting in 2009, Democrats will control both chambers in 27 legislatures, Republicans will control both in 14 states, and the chambers will be split in eight states. Nebraska has a unicameral legislature and does not figure into this calculation.
 

While the Presidential election takes center stage on November 4, voters in several states also will cast their votes on statewide ballot issues affecting the TBED community. In addition to the 11 gubernatorial races and more than 5,800 state legislative seats up for grabs, voters across the nation will consider measures to provide funding for public education, expand investment in alternative and renewable energy, lift restrictions on stem-cell research, and eliminate income tax and state spending caps. Following is a summary of selected ballot issues from across the nation.

Funding Public Education

Florida
Florida voters will be asked to amend the state constitution to require that the legislature authorize counties to levy a local option sales tax to supplement funding for public community colleges. Ballot question 8 requires voter approval to levy the tax.

Though the U.S. Treasury's initial proposal for a bailout of the financial sector was only three pages when it was first submitted to Congress, federal legislators did not waste time in expanding its scope. The $700 billion emergency stabilization package, passed early this month, eventually swelled to more than 400 pages. One of the largest additions to the bill was a new section extending incentives for alternative and renewable energy. 

These provisions include an extension of the wind energy Production Tax Credit and the solar energy Investment Tax Credit, as well as several other energy credits. In total, the bailout act contains 150 pages of energy provisions. 

Gov. Jim Douglas recently announced Vermont will roll out a suite of grants and incentives to strengthen the state's software industry. The initiative includes state-funded low-interest loans to software businesses, employment growth incentives and a tax credit for software research. In his unveiling of the software initiative at Champlain College's new Emergent Media Center, Gov. Douglas explained that state agencies will use these new measures in conjunction with the Center to help build a local software development cluster.

The U.S. should create a nationwide network of innovation zones which gather the capabilities of entities such as research parks, technology incubators, universities, and federal laboratories according to a recent report from the Association of University Research Parks (AURP). The Power of Place: A National Strategy for Building America's Communities of Innovation, recommends coupling distinct federal policies, regulatory reforms, and incentives along with these research and commercialization clusters to accelerate their impact.

In the 2002 report Signs of Life: The Growth of Biotechnology Centers in the U.S., Joseph Cortright and Heike Mayer suggested it would take more than a decade for biotech investment strategies to yield fruit  - as measured by NIH funding and biocommercialization efforts. On the state level, with five years of NIH research funding data now available, some states can boast real percentage and actual dollar changes in the amount of NIH funding captured.

Since total NIH funding peaked during the 2002-2006 period before beginning several years of nongrowth or decline in actual awards made, the gains in some states means other states saw declines.

Southern Growth hired Ted Abernathy, Jr., former Executive Vice President & COO of the Research Triangle Regional Partnership, to serve as its Executive Director, filling the vacancy created by Jim Clinton's resignation in September.

The Minnesota Center for Engineering & Manufacturing Excellence has hired Ronald Bennett as executive director.

The City of Virginia Beach Economic Development Department has hired Scott Hall to fill their newly created position of Business Development Coordinator.

Four recipients selected as best practice models in technology-based economic development were honored during an awards ceremony last week in Cleveland during SSTI's 12th Annual Conference. The awards follow a national competition emphasizing impact and replicability in approaches to building and sustaining tech-based economies.

"A crucial component to growing the nation's economy is supporting programs that are successful in developing and implementing initiatives that create high-paying jobs and provide U.S. businesses with the tools they need to compete in the global economy," said Dan Berglund, SSTI President and CEO. "This year's award recipients have generated significant returns for local, state and regional economies, each having an impressive story to share." 

Bank bailouts may be capturing all of the headlines, but a new initiative from the European Union (EU) promises to inject a considerable pool of money during the downturn to accelerate the development of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies. The European Commission, as well as participants from the European research community and industry will contribute nearly 1 billion Euros (U.S. $1.28 billion) to the public-private partnership over the next six years to fund research. Stakeholders believe that this effort will help speed the commercialization of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies by two to five years, and are hoping for a mass-market rollout of these technologies before 2020.