Florida Falls Behind In Tech Race With Short-Sighted Investment

Florida's state and local governments have given away more than $1 billion in incentives to lure biotechnology firms to the state, but a startling new report raises serious doubts about the state's deep-pocket strategy. The grim fact is Florida is losing ground in the biotech race.

The Milken Institute's 2008 State Science and Technology Index ought to serve as a wake-up call to politicians who think offering tax incentives to biotech industry is sufficient. The report takes inventory of states' ability to build and sustain high-tech economies, evaluating 77 indicators in areas such as workforce development, education, technology infrastructure and research funding.

The Milken Institute index shows Florida ranks 37th among the states - that's down from 32nd in 2004 and 29th in 2002.

Why is Florida losing ground? While it's eager to throw money at biotech firms, it isn't investing enough in developing a workforce that has the technology and science skills required by those companies.

None of this should come as any surprise to those who have watched Florida lawmakers' stingy treatment of the state university system, even as they preached the need for a new, high-tech based economy.

State lawmakers may have appropriated more money to higher education in the years leading up to the current budget crisis, but once adjusted for inflation and enrollment increases, Florida's universities actually lost ground from 2001 to 2007, reports the Southern Regional Education Board.

The Milken report minces no words: "Florida's worst performance is the measure of doctoral scientists." In a knowledge-based economy - to which Florida aspires - human capital investment is vital to state prosperity.

Florida did get points for its investment in building biotechnology clusters revolving around the Scripps Institute's Florida branch in Palm Beach County, the Burnham Institute for Medical Research near Orlando, the Torrey Pines Institute for Molecular Studies at Port St. Lucie and the Florida Max Planck Institute of Bio-Imaging in Jupiter.

But luring a few big-name biotech firms is not enough alone to make Florida competitive against biotech giants like Massachusetts.

Clearly, Florida needs a multi-pronged strategy that includes bringing in prestigious institutes and investing in a skilled workforce. Firms are now looking for concentrations of highly killed, highly educated people, but only Mississippi, South Carolina, Arkansas and Nevada rate worse than Florida on that measure.

The findings of the Milken report underscore what was so offensive in the state's last big biotech deal, the nearly $118 million package awarded to Oregon Health & Science University to open an institute in Florida. That money should have gone toward developing Florida university programs that would address the shortages of doctoral scientists.

For the near future, there is no money to either provide incentives for biotech firms or to develop Florida-based programs, which had been done through the Centers of Excellence projects. And it will be no surprise if future reports show Florida falling even further behind.

Just last month, Massachusetts approved a $1 billion incentive fund, and Maryland countered with a $1.1 billion proposal. There's no way for Florida to keep up.

But in this economic lull, Florida's education and economic leaders should come together and resolve to focus their efforts on the resource that is key to the state's future biotech success - its people.