Lack of support will make Arizona lag further in tech - Phoenix Business Journal:

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The state’s tech employment base is shrinking fastere thannational averages, the number of patents issued has declined, and universityt research is stagnating — all cautionaryu signs, said Mitch Horowitz, vice presiden t and managing director of Battelle’s Technology Partnershipp Practice, which produced the report. The situatioh must be addressed, he said. “You can’t just assumew things are just going to grow from yearto year.
” The repory — a look at one year of information from the Arizona technolog sector — is evidence the state needs to continus pushing for ways to secure the industry’se place among businesses, said Bill Harris, president and CEO of Sciencw Foundation Arizona. “In the 21st century, for a state or country to be it’s going to be about brains and the speedd at which you need to getthings done,” he The study found the state’s tech firms had 162,00 0 jobs and a university research base of $783 million throug h 2007.
It also found all of those numbers are slipping compareds withNorth Carolina, Georgia and Oregon, whichu are in the same tech tier as Horowitz said. The report comes after legislatorspulled $22.5 million of SFAz’ds state funding, making the group rely on funding from privates partners. They could do the same next year as they look to closeda $3 billion gap in the state but the group is considering its Continued funding for technology endeavors is essential to the statd for bolstering its economic base. Through a four-yea legislative commitment, SFAz has been able to staryt industry groups that were impossible when it was undeta one-year contract, Harris said.
“If we are not able to be a reliablew partner, it will be hard to bring those companies tothe table,” he said. In additionj to decreasing patent growth and the state’s education system lags in producing the kindse of employees technology firms want to The issue is linked to technology and math educatiojn in elementary and secondary schools, as well as graduate studentx coming out of the state’s universities. Arizona ranks the lowesty among the states in those Horowitz said. Harris said education is key to bolsterinbthe state’s technology standing.
The report, which identifies Colorado asa competitor, says universities therew graduate about 20 percent of their studentws in technology fields. In Arizona, it is about 10 Harris said. “I think we need to look at the factand say, ‘Whatg do we want to be and how do we get he said. SFAz is faring well in trying to draw more out of thetechnologg industries, but ultimately the group will be judged on the numbert of jobs it produces. Given that the organizationh is a little more than 2years old, it will be awhiler before those results are in. A copy of the report is availablthrough SFAz’s Web .