April 30, 2020 | Volume 24, Issue 18
SSTI

Treasury allows states’ CARES funds to assist small businesses

Last week, the U.S. Department of the Treasury published new guidance for how state and local governments can use the $150 billion in relief funds provided by the CARES Act. The guidance provides some flexibility to recipients to address “second-order effects” of the COVID-19 pandemic. On a long, but “nonexclusive” list of eligible expenditures, Treasury included expenditures related to small business grants to reimburse costs from related interruptions and costs related to a payroll protection program. State, territorial and tribal governments, as well as municipal governments with populations greater than 500,000 were eligible for these relief funds, which had to be requested by April 17. Generally, funds can cover necessary expenses incurred between March 1 and December 30 that were not part of the government’s budget in effect on March 27, 2020. Read more  | 

CBO projects high unemployment through at least 2021

New projections from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) of key economic variables reveal an expected sharp contraction in the economy in the second quarter with the unemployment rate projected to average 15 percent during the second and third quarters of 2020 and remaining as high as 9.5 percent by the end of 2021. CBO projects GDP will decline by about 12 percent during the second quarter. Federal debt held by the public is projected to be 101 percent of GDP by the end of the fiscal year, up from 79 percent at the end of FY 2019, but below the all-time high of 106 percent in 1946 following World War II. Read more 

NIH launches $1.5 billion “shark tank” to accelerate testing

The most recently-passed federal legislation to address COVID-19 included funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) to accelerate testing. The provision, added by Sens. Roy Blunt and Lamar Alexander, was envisioned to take an approach similar to TV’s “Shark Tank.” NIH is implementing the funds as a three-phase, “Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx),” challenge with up to $500 million in prizes. Teams with COVID-19 testing solutions will submit proposals, which will be evaluated by experts from the five hubs of NIH’s Point-of-Care Technologies Research Network. Finalists will receive assistance from experts before the final selection is made. Read more

New funding available for tech-based companies impacted by coronavirus in PA

In Pennsylvania, the Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) announced last week that new funding is available to help technology-based companies impacted by COVID-19. In recognizing that the state’s tech companies have been stepping up to provide innovative ways to produce personal protective equipment and other supplies, DCED Secretary Dennis Davin said in a release that “we must make sure they remain in a position to provide those critical services and ideas in our response to this pandemic.”  Read more 

Useful Stats

Measuring NIH SBIR/STTR Awards by State, 2019

In this week’s edition of Useful Stats, we take a look at NIH’s SBIR/STTR program by state, including the success rate of applications, the share SBIR awards make up of NIH funding to for-profit companies by state, and the total number of awards by state. It should be noted that SSTI was able to prepare this information because of the excellent transparency of information that NIH offers on its website, a model that should be replicated by other federal agencies.

Success Rates

A useful measure of states’ SBIR/STTR activities is the rate at which applications for funding are awarded. Nationwide in 2019, NIH made SBIR/STTR awards to 1,329 successful applicants out of 6,084 total applicants — equating to a national success rate of 21.8 percent. While California submitted the most applications (1,333), received the greatest number of awards (270), and received the greatest amount of funding ($116.3 million), it ranked 31st in terms of its application success rate (20.3 percent), which is lower than the national rate. Similarly, Massachusetts submitted the second most applications (549), received the second greatest number of awards (154), and the second greatest amount of funding ($63.4 million), but ranked 10th in terms of its success rate (28.1 percent).

As shown in the map, the states that experienced the greatest success rates in 2019 were Montana (48.3 percent), New Hampshire (35.8 percent), Alabama (35.3 percent), Nevada (30.8 percent), and Hawaii (30 percent).  Read more 

State News

Elected leaders in states several states are starting to halt raises, reduce salaries and furlough state workers to cut spending as the economic fallout from the coronavirus outbreak eats into their budgets. In Pennsylvania, Gov. Wolf froze pay for 9,000 state workers. Hawaii’s Gov. Ige has proposed a 20 percent pay cut for state employees, including teachers, with a 10 percent cut for first responders. In New York Gov. Cuomo halted pay raises for state workers instead of enacting layoffs. And Michigan’s Gov. Whitmer recently enacted layoffs for 3,000 state employees.

The Cuomo administration released an updated State Financial Plan over the weekend that lays out the governor’s plan to cut aid to New York localities by $8.2 billion and enact a 10 percent cut to state agency budgets unless new federal aid is forthcoming in the near future.

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown says she will not delay the state’s Corporate Activities Tax, which passed last year, in spite of a call to delay the tax on businesses hit hard by the coronavirus crisis. The tax enacts 0.57 percent tax on Oregon taxable commercial activity in excess of $1 million, whether they make profit or not. Revenue from the tax is earmarked for Oregon's schools and other essential services.
 

People in the News:

Doug Rothwell, president and CEO of Business Leaders for Michigan, announced that he will retire at the end of this year.

Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation’s new Office of Rural Prosperity will have Kelliann Blazek as its first director.

Bill Payne is the new executive director of Polsky Science & Technology at the University of Chicago.

Jeff Mason has retired as CEO of Michigan Economic Development Corp., which will be led in the interim by Mark Burton.

Join SSTI as a member 

 
Join your peers and lend your voice to the efforts building a better future through science, technology, innovation and entrepreneurship. Become an SSTI member and receive first notice of dozens of funding opportunities directly to your in-box every week; take advantage of reduced rates for our annual conference; learn from experts in the community; and, network with those most closely involved in technology-based economic development. Learn more about SSTI membership here.

This week's Staff Picks:

Gates Notes: The first modern pandemic
This post from Bill Gates shares his view of the current situation resulting from the pandemic and how he sees global innovations as key to limiting the damage. Read more

Roll Call: Coronavirus-hammered state budgets worse off than feared: report
The COVID-19 pandemic could cost state governments $650 billion over the next three years, according to a new report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Read more

Pew: States Take Early Steps to Manage COVID-19 Budget Fallout
State policymakers are taking the first steps to brace for the fallout from the pandemic on state budgets, providing a glimpse at months of budget-balancing actions ahead by governors and legislators. Read more

Yello: 35% of summer internships have already been canceled
Yello’s research shows that student internships have also been affected by the global pandemic: 35 percent of students who have already accepted a 2020 summer internship have learned that it will be canceled, while 24 percent have been informed that their internship will be virtual. Read more

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