Hello Readers,

I wanted to pass on some interesting information about Washington state as it compares to the rest of the nation.  Every two years the Milken Institute puts out a "State Science and Technology Index".  John Cook recently featured the report in his Seattle P-I blog.  You can find the report here:  http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/venture/library/StateTechScienceIndex1.pdf

There are several indices that are used in the report to determine the rankings.  Washington moved up one spot to fifth from sixth compared to the 2004 report.  Massachusetts ranked first followed by Maryland, Colorado and California.  After WA, Virginia came in sixth and Connecticut, Utah, New Hampshire and Rhode Island follow in order to round out the top ten.  Our neighbor to the south, Oregon, came in at 23, a drop of four spots compared to 2004.

The report is very meaty but worth reading if you are into economic development, science and technology indicators and things like that.  The Milken Institute uses five indicators to build its index.  Those indicators are listed, followed by Washington's 2008 ranking:  Research and Development Inputs (8), Risk Capital and Entrepreneurial Infrastructure (4), Human Capital Investment (16), Technology and Science Workforce (4) and, Technology Concentration and Dynamism (8). 

Interestingly, the areas in which our state scores the lowest, Human Capital Investment, is where there is most involvement from government in terms of bachelor degree or better production.  Washington dropped eight places to 16th, due in part to other states stepping up their investment in state R&D and in bachelor degree or higher production, demonstrating that Washington is still way behind where we need to be in STEM degree production.  This is further demonstrated by WA's high ranking, fourth, in Science and Technology Workforce showing that we still "import" well educated workers to our state.

It is certainly gratifying and worth a little preening over Washington's fifth place ranking in this rather prestigious report but we cannot rest on our laurels.  Other states, like Maryland, Virginia, Colorado and others are aggressively building their intellectual and technology capacities.  It definitely points out the need for the state to continue to invest in and improve both K-12 and higher education as well as technology transfer and commercialization.

In doing some additional research I came across another very interesting list of economic facts put out by the New York Public Policy Institute.  The purpose seems to be to show how bad a place New York state is to do business and many of indicators support that.  But it ranks all the states on various factors, such as educational attainment, tax burden per capita, per pupil spending, job growth/job loss, etc.  There are a number of categories where Washington ranks quite low and several where we rank quite high.  Sadly, those areas where state government is involved, our state's ranking leaves a lot to be desired.  You can check this report out here:  http://www.ppinys.org/reports/JustTheFacts.html.

Much of our advocacy and lobbying activity is done to ensure that our state remains in the top tier of states in the "good" rankings and we have had a solid long-term record of doing so.  We also work hard to try to reduce the burdens that state government places on you and your business, while promoting the areas of government that matter most, primarily education.

Please contact me if you have any questions or wish to get involved in our advocacy and government affairs activities.  We need more WTIA members to help us weigh in with policymakers at the local, state and federal level to ensure that our state remains a leader in the global economy.