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We need to get more DoD moneyTom Still
But the comparisons end when it comes to federal research spending on defense and aerospace industries. There, Wis-consin is a dismal third, and it helps to explain why an otherwise well-positioned state is failing to keep up with the Joneses. While it is a clear leader in attracting academic research and development funding from the federal government, Wisconsin lags Minn-esota and Colorado in the number of high-tech jobs, its ability to create new companies and total R&D spending, according to The Alliance for Science and Technology Re-search in America (ASTRA). Wisconsin even trails Minnesota and Colorado on patents issued per million residents, despite the exemplary performance of UW-Madison in that category year after year. Why has Wisconsin failed to keep pace with its two, slightly less populous peers? The answer may be simple: We don't know how to play Defense. That's "Defense," as in Department of Defense, one of the largest financiers of academic and private R&D in the United States. Wisconsin carried out a paltry $38 million in DoD research in fiscal 2003, according to ASTRA, compared to $525 million in Colorado and $584 million in Minnesota. Wisconsin fared a little better in R&D spending from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, with about $16 million for the year compared to $9 million for Minnesota, but Colorado weighed in with $155 million in NASA spending. The Department of Defense is the No. 1 source of federal R&D dollars in Minnesota and Colorado, but it is an also-ran in Wisconsin. The Department of Health and Human Services, which includes the National Institutes of Health, is the source of 70 cents out of every $1 spent on R&D by the federal government in Wisconsin. "Federal R&D in Wisconsin has been declining since 1994," ASTRA reported. "Because it lacks defense contractors, large federal labs and federally supported laboratories, Wisconsin's share of total federal R&D is well below its share of the total U.S. population." The difference is pronounced when it comes to high-tech jobs. Colorado has about 203,000, Minnesota 183,000 -- and Wisconsin has just 77,000, according to 2003 figures compiled by ASTRA. There are certainly other factors, such as the state's reliance on manufacturing and its tax structure, but a good deal of Wisconsin's deficit is due to its almost allergic reaction to defense R&D. Recently, when the director of Metro Denver's economic development authority spoke in Mil-waukee and Madison, he noted that defense and aerospace jobs are a priority in that state. In Wisconsin, those jobs are rarely a policy objective. But that will change over time when the Wisconsin Security Research Consortium -- a project of the Wisconsin Technology Council, the UW System and other academic players -- takes form. This group was created to help bring more classified and sensitive research dollars to Wisconsin, which has the core scientific ability to carry out this vital national task while creating jobs at home. The foiled plot in August to blow up U.S.-bound airliners from London shows the war on terror is far from over. Wisconsin can continue to watch its share of federal research dollars decline, or it can aggressively compete in a sector where it has nowhere to go but up. Tom Still is president of the Wisconsin Technology Council. madison.com ©2009 Capital Newspapers. All rights reserved. |
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