SSTI Digest

As state and local governments make tough funding choices with tight budgets, a new Economic Policy Institute (EPI) report shows adequate and effective funding of education is the best way to achieve faster growth, more jobs, greater productivity, and more widely shared prosperity.

Smart Money: Education and Economic Development draws on research to show how increased investment in preschool, primary and secondary education, and colleges provides concrete returns to economic development through increases in productivity, learned skills, technology and workers' average earnings.

At a time when the knowledge-based economy demands increasingly higher skills to stay competitive, support for well resourced schooling and training is key, the report states. This strategy also is an important tool for advancing economic equality, it adds.

The U.S. Department of Commerce and the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) recently released reports making recommendations to address the challenges faced by the manufacturing industry. One of the recommendations in the NAPA report suggests creating a strategic plan that articulates the "next generation" of the Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP). To gather public comment on the strategic plan and respond to both reports' recommendations, MEP will hold a series of regional roundtables and webcasts this summer:

Wanted: all managers in private-sector research and development (R&D) facilities. The Southern Growth Policies Board is conducting a nationwide survey to gain insight into drivers and policies of industrial R&D. The survey attempts to illuminate university-company relationships. If you are a manager and can spare 10 minutes of your time for the online survey, visit the survey at http://www.southern.org/survey.shtml. Questions may be directed to Scott Doron, director of the Southern Technology Council, at sdoron@southern.org.

Connecticut Lt. Gov. M. Jodi Rell was sworn in as the state’s 87th governor on July 1, taking over from former Gov. John Rowland, who resigned amid a federal corruption investigation and a threatened impeachment for allegedly accepting gifts from employees and state contractors. Senate President Pro Tem Kevin Sullivan was sworn in as Lieutenant Governor. Rell is a Republican, while Sullivan is a Democrat.

Indiana Gov. Joe Kernan has named David Dorff as the state's first director for the new Office of Small Business Advocacy.

Angie Dvorak, vice president of research and economic development for the University of Southern Mississippi, is becoming president of the university's research foundation.

Frank Horrigan is leaving Innovation Works in Pittsburgh to become director of the Governors Action Team SW Regional Office.

Connecticut Lt. Gov. M. Jodi Rell was sworn in as the state’s 87th governor on July 1, taking over from former Gov. John Rowland, who resigned amid a federal corruption investigation and a threatened impeachment for allegedly accepting gifts from employees and state contractors. Senate President Pro Tem Kevin Sullivan was sworn in as Lieutenant Governor. Rell is a Republican, while Sullivan is a Democrat.

Indiana Gov. Joe Kernan has named David Dorff as the state's first director for the new Office of Small Business Advocacy.

Angie Dvorak, vice president of research and economic development for the University of Southern Mississippi, is becoming president of the university's research foundation.

Frank Horrigan is leaving Innovation Works in Pittsburgh to become director of the Governors Action Team SW Regional Office.

Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco has appointed Michael Olivier to serve as Secretary of Louisiana Economic Development. Olivier was president and CEO of the Harrison County Development Commission in Gulfport, Miss., for 17 years.

Jim Petell is the first director of technology transfer and commercialization for the University of North Dakota.

The Fayetteville Economic Development Council named Steven Rust as its new executive director, beginning Aug. 15.

Growth in personal income tax has led to a revival of state tax revenues, the same source that led to the previous decline, according to a report released by the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government. The report indicates sustained growth in states' economies over the past three quarters, with increases in revenue from personal, sales and corporate taxes, creating optimism for the future of state budgets.

State tax revenue grew by 8.1 percent in the January-March quarter compared to the same period in 2003, a continuous growth since the last period of decline in July 2001 through June 2002, according to State Tax Revenue Recovery Gathering Steam. Legislated tax increases enacted in several of the states over the last three years have contributed to the revenue growth, the report indicates, although the January-March quarter growth was still strong after tax hikes were factored out.