New York State's final enacted budget for 2013-2014 includes the strongest-ever support for business incubation as a critical component of the state's overall economic-development strategy. Through negotiations that led to the final budget, Governor Andrew Cuomo's vision for tax-free Innovation Hot Spots was merged with key provisions of the Business Incubator Support Act proposed by Senator Martin Golden. The package also received approval from the state Assembly.

Under new statutory language included in Part C of the final "revenue bill," incubators that follow nationally recognized best practices will be eligible to apply for recognition as a "New York State Incubator" by Empire State Development Corp., the state's principal economic-development entity. ESDC is further empowered and funded to make grants to these designated incubators to support the kinds of business-growth services that distinguish excellent and effective incubator programs from the rest.

A subset of designated New York State Incubators with particularly strong ties to university R&D will also be eligible to apply for tax-free status for up to five years for qualifying tenant/clients. The state expects to designate and support one such "Innovation Hot Spot" in each of 10 economic regions, starting with five in the coming year. 

For more information, see Governor Cuomo's news release, the state Senate's news release, or a specific news release from Senator Golden (see attached). Our association and our members warmly appreciate the ability of all branches of government, both legislative chambers, and all political parties to achieve a joint vision for advancing the practice of business incubation statewide.

BioBAT, a project to develop affordable, state-of-the-art biotechnology space at the Brooklyn Army Terminal, is searching for an executive director. BioBAT is a collaboration among our supporting member the SUNY Downstate incubation program, the New York City Economic Development Corporation, the Research Foundation for SUNY, and the State of New York. For more information please see the attached job description.

Two discovery-stage biotech companies spun off from the laboratory of a star researcher at Roswell Park Cancer Institute will move into the Thomas Beecher Jr. Innovation Center, a member incubator on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus (BNMC).

OncoTartis, Inc., and Tartis Aging, Inc., are based on technologies licensed from Roswell Park and developed in the laboratories of Dr. Andrewi Gudkov. Dr. Gudkov and his first commercial company, Cleveland BioLabs Inc. (CLBI), were recruited to Buffalo in 2007. The two new spin-offs had outgrown space available to them in the CLBI building but wished to remain on the BNMC campus.

For more information, see the BNMC news release and coverage in The Buffalo News. 

A new bill to recognize business incubators for adherence to best practice and make them eligible for financial support has been introduced in the state Senate. The Business Incubator Support Act (S-4078) was introduced by Senator Martin Golden (R,C,I-Brooklyn), the recently named chairman of the Senate's Select Commitee on Science, Technology, Incubation and Entrepreneurship.

The bill sets up a system to encourage development of a wide range of incubator types and recognizes for the first time the state's interest in supporting operational excellence, backed by regular reporting and accountability on economic outcomes.  As such, this bill represents a completely new approach to the state's interest in a robust business-incubator system statewide, and our board of directors has endorsed it.

The bill is also referenced in the state Senate's budget resolution, which means it will be part of ongoing negotiations between the two chambers of the Legislature and Governor Andrew Cuomo, who has proposed funding for a Innovation Hot Spot program to recognize and support one flagship incubator in each economic region. In our view, the two approaches are complementary and we hope for a negotiated outcome that achieves maximum impact from both approaches.

The full text of S-4078 is available here. We thank the sponsor and co-sponsors for their commitment to business incubation as one component of a balanced state economic-development strategy.