Arkansas Enacts $140M TBED Package

With all of the recent activity from its state legislature, Arkansas will soon possess one of the nation's most comprehensive portfolios of state-supported TBED initiatives. A number of TBED-related acts passed by the Arkansas General Assembly this session have all received Gov. Mike Beebe's signature. The result could be a public injection of up to $140 million for Arkansas's TBED community over the next biennium.



Most of the new TBED initiatives were outlined in the 2007 Legislative Agenda created by Accelerate Arkansas, an independent statewide coalition organized under the Arkansas Economic Acceleration Foundation. Accelerate Arkansas' goal is to raise the state's average wage to the national average by 2020, a goal to be advanced by investments in research, entrepreneurship, risk capital, and Arkansas' science and engineering workforce.



Every component of the legislative agenda proposed by Accelerate Arkansas was accepted by the legislature. The General Assembly also passed additional TBED legislation during the recent session, including authorization for research parks, broadband access, and R&D tax credits. The package rounds out the complement of the programs already underway in the state through the Arkansas Science & Technology Authority.



The new legislation authorizes maximum spending levels for a variety of specific TBED activities to be undertaken during the 2007-2009 biennial budget cycle. Gov. Beebe is given the discretion to spend less than the maximum levels, providing a flexibility to reallocate resources that is not often available to state executive branches.



Many of the new measures will be supported by an anticipated surplus in state revenues - projected to be around $917 million when the fiscal year ends on June 30. The legislature decided the funds will be distributed between public school facilities ($456 million), highway improvements ($80 million) and other legislature-initiated projects, resulting in about $196 million to be used for programs within the executive branch. Gov. Beebe has authorization to use approximately 70 percent of the $196 million for TBED initiatives, including:

• $40 million for the Arkansas Risk Capital Matching Fund, to provide financing to knowledge-based companies throughout Arkansas in early stages of development;
• $40 million for STEM Supplemental Income Grants, designed to provide up to $10,000 for teachers who specialize in science, technology, engineering, and math. These funds to retain and hire qualified teachers will be distributed by the Arkansas Department of Economic Development;
• $33.5 million for research grants administered by the Arkansas Science and Technology Authority, including $12 million for research matching funds, $12 million for centers for applied technology, and $7 million for bioscience research grants;
• $20 million for the Seed Capital Investment Program, providing up to $500,000 in capitalization for tech-based companies in Arkansas;
• $3 million to create Innovate Arkansas, a new nonprofit organization that will contract with state government to support the needs of start-up companies, being modeled on the i2E (innovation to enterprise) Inc. program in Oklahoma;
• $500,000 to establish the Arkansas Research Alliance, a not-for-profit corporation modeled after the Georgia Research Alliance, designed to identify and encourage job-creating scientific research and recommend strategic investments at universities in Arkansas; and,
• $200,000 to create and fund the Task Force for the 21st Century, collecting 17 individuals to study economic development and global competitiveness in Arkansas.

The 2007 Legislative Agenda of Accelerate Arkansas can be found at:

http://www.asta.ar.gov/AA%20Brochure%2003-06-07.pdf