THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, December 25, 1994 TAG: 9412250071
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JAMES SCHULTZ, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines
Budget slashing has left most state agencies bloodied and some worried about survival. At least one has had a near-death experience: the Center for Innovative Technology, a state agency in Herndon, Fairfax County, that promotes technology development.
Gov. George Allen's Commission on Government Reform earlier this year recommended the complete elimination of state funding to the agency, which has received roughly $100 million from taxpayers since 1984.
The governor's proposed 1995-1996 budget nearly halves CIT's current fiscal year figure of $8.2 million. In the 1996 fiscal year that begins in July, the center is allocated just $4.2 million.
``We're still not sure what the implications are,'' said CIT president Robert G. Templin Jr. ``We expected that CIT would continue at roughly its current level (of funding).''
Critics expressed disappointment that Allen didn't kill the technology center outright.
``It looks like the governor gave the CIT a Christmas present,'' said Connie Bedell, a reform commission member who led the anti-CIT charge. ``He's given them a stay of execution.''
Shortly before the governor released the new budget, CIT submitted a strategic plan to Allen and his aides that described the ``new CIT.'' The agency, said the report, would by 1997 create or retain 6,000 jobs and assist 1,500 companies in ``improving their competitiveness.''
During that same period, the agency promised to ``be instrumental in starting, retaining or converting 150 companies.'' The report added that helping firms go high tech, combined with the other measures, would bring state coffers at least $100 million.
Program architects hoped the 10-year-old technology center would be Virginia's answer to North Carolina's Research Triangle Park, where high-tech firms drawing on that state's university talent have congregated. But with the exception of several small, CIT-sponsored research ventures at several state universities - including Old Dominion - no such comparable place has emerged in Virginia.
``State government cannot do innovative things,'' asserted Walter Curt, also a task force commission member and owner of a Harrisonburg electronics and software development firm. ``I challenge you to find the jobs created. This CIT money is wasted. It is wasted!''
Curt, a vehement CIT critic, dismisses the agency's reform efforts, calling them ``a sham'' and ``classic pap.'' He believes that the money the agency says it has funneled to innovative projects and business collaborations at Virginia universities and colleges have really been nothing more than glorified ``summer grant programs.''
Curt says policymakers should cut red tape, get rid of as many bureaucrats as humanly possible and funnel money directly to worthy scientists and businesses. Then, and only then, will economic results be seen.
``Nuke CIT,'' Curt suggests. ``Take the money and put it in the Secretary of Education office. Give grants directly to faculty members.''
That doesn't seem to be Allen's intention, however. The governor has mentioned the innovative technology center in public discussions of economic policy and the need to lure high-tech companies to the state. He apparently has heeded the advice of CIT defenders, who believe that some sort of state-sponsored broker is required for high-tech business recruitment.
``The CIT mission will be basically reversed,'' said Rob Lockridge, a budget manager in the state Department of Planning and Budget. ``They will go to business and private industry first. Then they will go to the universities. (They) will be given an opportunity to have success.''
Now that CIT has gone on record with a specific dollar-and-jobs commitment, their grace period won't last any longer than Allen's next budget, which will be prepared in the fall of 1995. by CNB