Last week I attended the MTA Fall Conference. I want to thank Brent Christensen for the invitation and for sharing so many of the PPT presentations. I attended the track on economic development. It was heartening to hear about the impact of the economy on the telecom industry and the impact of industry on the economy. In the notes I have also included a couple of lists of economic tools (including grants and loans) available from various public resources.
DEED – Office of Broadband Deployment
- Not much to tell about OBD because it is so new.
- $250,000 year ongoing funding
- Governor wants to see border to border broadband
- We are seeing progress but need to see more
- Big debate on where the OBD should go – but DEED got it
- In the process of hiring an Executive Director
- Will have to work with all stakeholders
- Build upon important groundwork built by Task Force
- What will the OBD need?
- Leadership
- Expertise
- Collaboration
- Creative Solutions
- Hard work
Telecom Industry
- Industry following job trends
- 869 businesses, 13,702 industry jobs
- Industry growth 1.3% over 10 years
- Employment in wireless projected to expand 43%
How is MN economy doing?
- Economic Growth – 3.4% (5th in nation)
- Unemployment rate %5.1% (10th lowest in nation)
- Job growth 2.3%
- Per capita Income is ranked 4th in nation
- Patents per capita is ranked 5th
- Record export growth over 2 years
- MN ranks 6th for 8th grade science test scores
- MN produces 14,600 STEM graduates (12th in nation)
Governor’s 2013 Priorities
- Education (all day kindergarten, tuition grants & freezes)
- Jobs
- Balanced budget
- Admin is interested in removing burden on business (such as sales tax)
What are ED tools from DEED?
- MN Investment Fund – $30 million – up to $1 million in loans and grants per project to support capital investment and job creation
- MN Job Creation Fund (new JObZ) – $24 million – backend investment – so you get rebate based on number of jobs you create. (up to $500,000for capital investment & job creation)
- Global Competitiveness Initiative – help increase MN exports and international investment in MN
- Job Skills Partnership – $8.3 million – up to $400,000 grant per project
- Redevelopment Programs $6 mllion
- Blighted sites – contaminated sites $3.9 million
- Transportation Economic Development – $20 million
- New customized training programs for manufactures – @$1 million
Questions:
Q. Capital equipment sales tax – it’s now an upfront exemption and it excludes telecom industry. DO you foresee a change?
A. If we can create a case for it, we’d like to hear that. I haven’t heard anyone putting that idea forward. People can introduce changes to laws. We’d like to hear more about it.
Q. With the tools you have – are there any telecom companies can use to expand broadband?
A. Maybe the transportation are applicable – tough to know without knowing details. If there’s a need we can look into it and get creative.
Q. Is $250,000 be appropriate on regular basis?
A. It’s structured to be ongoing. It’s not a lot of money – probably only ED and coordinator position in DEED and Commerce (Commerce will probably be moved). We think the OBD may put forward proposals. We’d advocate for those proposals.
MTA Day Two
NTCA’s Smart Rural Community Program, Jessica Golden, NTCA
NTCA –The Rural Broadband Association
- Trade association, representing 900 small, rural communications providers
- Serve 5% of the nation’s subscribers across 40% of the nation’s land mass
Challenges to Rural Broadband Advocacy
- Your fault for living there
- Disconnect between urban and rural relevance for consumers
- Regulatory Uncertainty
Third Party Outreach: Rural Solidarity
- Challenge: Political & Cultural Disconnect for Rural
- National and local strategic outreach: agriculture, public safety, health care, education, utilities, small business
- Tied together: reliance on broadband
Outreach Strategies
- Advocate stronger national & Local rural collaboration
- Identify and join strategic coalitions
- Joint letters with third parties
- Organize summits
- Broadband Adoption Summit
- Smart Rural Communities Summit
Smart Rural Communities Summit
- April 2012: NTAC convenes 50+ leaders from government and vertical industries of education, agriculture, health care, public safety
- Releases white paper
- A Smart Rural Community embraces teams of collaborative leaders standing behind promoting the technology
Building Smart Rural Communities
- Advisory Committee: recruiting expertise
- Recognizing Smart Rural Communities
- Showcasing the Best and Brightest
Criteria of Smart Communities:
- Use of broadband in meeting needs of major industries
- Recruitment, retention and expansion of commercial, government, nonprofits
- Economic and societal support via broadband
- Efforts for the future
- Collaboration
NTCA has a Rural is Cool initiative. They are collecting cool stories – and ask folks to send them the stories – via Social Media (#ruraliscool).
EDAM’s Legislative Perspective, Michael Wilhelmi, EDAM Legislative Director
EDAM – does professional development and government relations.
The EDAM 2013 Legislative Wrap-UP
Why Businesses Expand in Rural Areas: A case study of Bemidji, Gary Johnson, CEO of PBC and Dave Hengel, Director of Greater Bemidji
- Technology has changed economic development. You can locate your business nearly anywhere now – that wasn’t true 5 years ago.
- You can now build a successful community, you don’t have to inherit successful traits
Bemidji initiatives
- Students First – kids get a plan and a mentor
- Target recruitment campaign
- Intern Bemidji (www.internbemidji.com)
- Sanford Regional Events Center
- South Shore Redevelopment
- Angel Fun “on steroids”
- Entrepreneur Mentoring Program
- Cluster-based Development
- Minnesota Innovation Institute
- Advanced Telecommunications Infrastructure (Paul Bunyan, Mid-Continent, CenturyLink)
- Bemidji Leads
About Paul Bunyan
- Bemidji Technology Park Development
- Provide a business loan program
- Support region’s economic development efforts
Other presentations: