| Governor's Oregon Principles Budget 2005-2007 |
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| Economic Development |
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Principle: Oregon has a positive business climate and invests in economic development in order to create and retain sustainable businesses and family-wage jobs.
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The future of Oregon depends on its ability to strategically invest in human capital and infrastructure to facilitate the growth of business and jobs. We must increase our capacity to innovate and foster business development to create and retain enduring jobs for Oregonians.
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| Overview |
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For Oregon to compete in a national and global economy, Governor Kulongoski believes we must make strategic investments in building Oregon’s capacity to innovate. Oregon must focus on recruiting, expanding and retaining businesses that will create sustainable new jobs through innovation of new products and services, enhancing start-up capital, and infrastructure that promotes the commercialization of research into new and existing companies. The Governor’s Recommended Budget provides development and operating funds for Oregon’s first “Signature Research Center,” Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies Institute (ONAMI) and a pre-seed or “proof of concept fund” for commercializing research into business ventures.
Currently, Oregon universities have almost $1 billion involved in research and development, providing the potential to develop new drugs, new material, new technology, or new agricultural application. This investment in Oregon’s human capital creates real wealth in our economy. Federal and private dollars for research and development attract creative and innovative people to Oregon to be part of our research and development expertise. The ideas created through research can be spun-off into new businesses or commercialized development to enhance the products and services of existing businesses. Jobs created by these businesses generally pay well above average wages and bring new wealth into the state by exporting the commercialized products outside Oregon to our trading partners around the world. This is how Oregon will successfully compete in the global markets.
During his first year in office, the Governor helped facilitate a partnership between Hewlett-Packard, Oregon Health Sciences University, the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Oregon’s higher education institutions to create ONAMI. ONAMI opened in Corvallis in May 2004, with demonstrated benefits for Oregon’s economy. In the initial year of operation, ONAMI has used half of the $1 million General Fund investment for operations and leveraged more than $22 million of federal research dollars and more than $3 million of private investment (a return of over 50:1).
The Governor’s Recommend Budget creates a Commercialized Research Fund that would be available to businesses with fewer than 100 employees that wish to work with Oregon’s research institutions to develop new products or refine existing products. The competitiveness of Oregon’s traded sector industries is increasingly dependent on the ability to rapidly develop and commercialize new ideas and technologies.
The Governor’s budget also continues his effort to increase the availability of “project ready” industrial sites in Oregon. In recruiting new companies to Oregon, we compete against states where a company can pick from numerous 25-acre or larger industrial sites and get the necessary permits very quickly. When the Governor took office, the number of sites in Oregon that met this market requirement was essentially zero. He directed state agencies to increase the availability of “project-ready” industrial land and directed the state’s Economic Revitalization Team to assist in developing an industrial site certification program. Since the Governor launched this effort, 20 “project-ready” sites have been certified in Oregon, totaling 1,710 acres of available industrial land. His budget continues this commitment, with the goal of 50 certified sites by summer 2005. Oregon industrial sites can be found online at www.oregonprospector.com.
The Governor’s Recommended Budget further continues Oregon’s investment in transportation through “ConnectOregon,” an initiative to improve Oregon’s multi-modal transportation infrastructure. In addition, the budget invests in regional/rural projects that will advance state priorities to create jobs in rural areas around the state
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