Houston said that in 1968, Utah was "quite frankly, a backwater." But the development of a research park and technology transfer program led to the formations of Novell, WordPerfect, Iomega and Evans & Sutherland, among others, and helped Utah become known as "Little Silicon Valley," she said.

That is no longer the case. "We kind of find ourselves in the same place that we were in 1968, which is wages in the state are going the opposite direction of where we need them to be going, (and) our young people are leaving the state for better opportunities," Houston said.

Without a repeat of Utah's technology and research and development successes of the past, the state faces a "major danger of falling behind, to a point that if we do, there's a possibility that we could never catch up," Beattie said. "That's how critical this is."

Other states are committing huge amounts for similar research-boosting activities. Arizona, for example, will spend $650 million.

"We will never be able to solve public education needs in this state — ever — unless we do these kinds of transactions — that is, put our money where our mouth is in regards to research and development at our research institutions. It is what will be able to provide us the research we need and the dollars we need to provide public education in this state. So, without it, we are going to handicap the ability to take care of our own children," Beattie said.

"We are very fortunate for what is already being done in Utah's two research universities and its impact on the rest of higher education. But again, let me make no bones about it, the impact to Utah, to every citizen and to every child in every classroom in this state, is totally conditioned upon our success of what we do at our research universities. There is not an economic environment in the United States today that is strong that is not directly tied to research and development and technology, and we simply cannot fall behind."

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E-mail: bwallace@desnews.com