President Obama nominated Francis Collins, a physician and scientist who helped guide the Human Genome Project to completion, as the next director of the National Institutes of Health.

The legislature approved a budget agreement for the 2009-11 biennium last month, preserving partial funding for Oregon innovation efforts and passing legislation aimed at green job creation. A major component of Gov. Ted Kulongoski's climate change agenda did not survive the legislative session, however.

The second installment of SSTI's Tech Talkin' Govs series includes excerpts from speeches delivered in Alaska, Colorado, Missouri, and New Mexico. Our first installment was in the Jan. 11 Digest. Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell, State of the State Address, Jan. 19, 2012 "I also thank you for working with me to create a merit scholarship that gives all Alaska's children an incentive to complete a more rigorous high school curriculum. ... "... In its first year, this scholarship has been a remarkable success. Now we must secure it for future years.

With a sharp decline in state funding available for higher education over the past several years, performance- and outcome-based funding has garnered a great deal of attention in several states seeking to maximize education funds and support economic growth. Governors in Arizona and New Mexico recently proposed significant reforms in higher education funding so that universities with greater R&D expenditures and those that graduate more students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields would receive a bigger share of state funds. Arizona Gov.

As many states near the mid-point of their 2012 legislative sessions, we thought it would be a good time to take a look at some of the bills advancing in statehouses that could impact states' efforts to improve economic conditions. Several states are seeking to advance access to capital initiatives as they continue to struggle with declining revenue and tight credit restrictions. The following overview provides a sampling of TBED bills supporting access to capital, R&D enhancements and higher education standards.

Providing Access to Capital

While election night's main focus was on the presidential race, the importance of ballot measures for states and metros is growing as public services and budgets are being severely trimmed. A recent article in The New Republic reports on a new trend where states are embracing ballot measures as a potential source of dedicated funds for targeted investments in regional economic growth and development.

Encouraged by promising commercialization efforts, new companies created and an impressive leverage of outside funding, Gov. John Kitzhaber has proposed a more than 50 percent increase in Oregon innovation efforts through the state's signature research centers. The governor's budget proposal for 2013-15 also includes funding to address small business capital needs and to better align workforce programs with employer needs. Calling his two-year spending plan an “education investment budget,” Gov.

A new article from Governing magazine is promoting free digital access to public information, or “Open Data,” as a pathway for promoting entrepreneurship and government cost-savings. When governments release free digital public records entrepreneurs can use the information to create apps that provide valuable and profitable services to consumers.

New efforts to step up technology transfer at the University of New Mexico (UNM) and the University of Tennessee (UT) have resulted in a record number of invention disclosures over the last year. In both cases, much of the achievement is attributed to faulty involvement, including new outreach efforts by the universities and more aggressive and ambitious goals set for the institutions.

Voters in 37 states will decide on more than 170 ballot measures this year, many of which are related to tech-based economic development (TBED). Tax measures seem to be dominating ballots this year, with questions relating to both decreases and increases for sales, property and income taxes. Several states are counting on voters to agree to temporary increases to help fill budget deficits and ensure steady funding for education.

The Obama administration announced winners of the Advanced Manufacturing Jobs and Innovation Accelerator Challenge on Tuesday. The challenge — publicized earlier this year — is one of the key initiatives of the interagency Taskforce for the Advancement of Regional Innovation Clusters and is sponsored by a partnership between the U.S. Department of Commerce, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the Departments of Energy and Labor, and the Small Business Administration.

As the cost of a college education continues to rise and good paying jobs are seemingly scarcer than ever before, many Americans are questioning the value of a college degree. A recent survey from the Pew Research Center found 57 percent of Americans believe the U.S. fails to provide good value for the money students and their families spend, and about four in ten college presidents say the system is headed in the wrong direction. At the same time, however, studies find the lifetime earnings of college graduates to be much higher than those of high school graduates.