The Record
www.bergen.com
Wednesday, June 18, 2003
By Hugh R. Morley, Staff Writer
The future looks brighter for the New Jersey Commission on Science and Technology.
Six months after Governor McGreevey proposed stripping the commission's entire state
funding of $15 million to help resolve his budget woes, the governor and top Democratic
legislators have agreed to restore $8 million to the program, Matt Golden, a Treasury
spokesman, said Tuesday.
The move, if backed by Senate Republicans, would save - at least for the moment - a program
that business leaders say is a key tool for promoting technology in the state. The
eight-employee commission gives seed grants and loans to fund technology incubators and
supports research centers at universities and small-business co-ops.
Under McGreevey's initial plan, the commission was to be dismantled effective July 1. The
$8 million will create a breathing space in which a secure future for the commission can be
planned, said Assemblyman Upendra Chivukula, D-Somerset, vice chairman of the Assembly
Commerce and Economic Development Committee.
"We have 11 incubators,'' Chivukula said. "We won't be able to build any new ones but at
least we will be able to sustain the ones have. It won't kill the whole program. It will
sustain it on a life support system.''
A spokesperson for Senate Republicans could not be reached for comment.
The move comes less than a week after McGreevey abandoned his plan to cut all funding from
the Business Employment Incentive Program, which offers grants to businesses that create
new jobs in the state.
Last Wednesday, he announced that the state would float bonds to keep the program going if
there were no money in the budget.
When the governor proposed to cut commission funding in January, McGreevey spokesmen said
it was a painful move taken only because of the multibillion-dollar budget gap the state
was facing.
But critics of McGreevey's plan said it was a false economy: They argued that the commission
in the long run helped to stimulate economic activity and create jobs and tax revenues.
"Science and technology is a vital part of our economy and also of our higher education
system," said Sen. Bernard F. Kenny, D-Hoboken.
"The two work hand in hand. So it's been a major part of New Jersey's economic growth over
the last decade.''
Hugh R. Morley's e-mail address is morley@northjersey.com
