The bill had sought $4 million for programming and preliminary design, $4 million in research equipment and $6 million for hiring researchers at "research clusters." Ultimately, supporters envision needing $250 million in research infrastructure, $25 million for regional "technology innovation centers," $25 million in ongoing investment for the clusters and $1 million in ongoing spending to support the centers.

Utah State eventually would be home to a Life Sciences Institute, an Infectious Disease Center and an Informatics/Computing Center. The U. would be home to a Brain Institute and an Information Technology and Bioinformatics Center.

Instead, the final version of SB192 calls for $3 million for equipment and supplies at the U.; $350,000 for developing, planning and implementing the high-tech initiative; and $1.6 million in ongoing funds to USU and $2.4 million for the U. for recruiting for high-technology research and development.

"We're very pleased," said Robin Riggs, vice president and general counsel for the Salt Lake Chamber, which backed the bill. "We're excited that the Legislature decided to fund the beginning steps of what we think will be a major economic thing for the entire state."

Riggs said the smaller initial funding amount still means "we can, in fact, go ahead on the first step and get some exciting things going in terms of getting a leg up on important research that can lead to great spinoffs and tech transfer. We thought the original bill was about right for the U. and USU. It was cut back a little bit, but it's enough to give us a good start."

The bill also calls for the universities to present a long-range plan for high-tech development, including financial implications, to lawmakers by November. Riggs said that was needed in the bill "because accountability is essential for this to work."

Also trimmed from its original form was funding for tourism promotion. SB7 initially called for $55 million in general fund money over a decade — starting at $10 million and falling $1 million a year — to promote Utah to out-of-staters. It also included a mechanism to get a percentage of tourism-generated sales tax money in later years, up to $3 million annually.

The final version features $18 million in general fund money for the upcoming fiscal year, plus the sales tax incremental funding.

Utah state government spends $900,000 annually on advertising to out-of-staters, although counties do some promotion through car-rental and restaurant taxes, and ski resorts and Ski Utah also spend several million dollars annually on promotion.

Also on the tourism front, HB57, creating a legislative task force to study tourism, passed. Originally the bill called for a task force to study the state's liquor laws, but its sponsor, Rep. David Ure, R-Kamas, changed the focus.

---

E-mail: bwallace@desnews.com