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Posted on 08/07/2003 7:54:36 AM PDT by Stew Padasso

N.C. tobacco settlement money may lure high-tech firms

Associated Press

MORRISVILLE, N.C. - Money from the Golden LEAF national tobacco settlement could provide up to $60 million for a major biotechnology training initiative at N.C. State and N.C. Central universities and the state's community colleges.

Supporters said the goal is to lure cutting-edge biotechnology and pharmaceutical jobs to North Carolina by providing a ready-made work force.

It would be the largest grant approved by the foundation, which oversees $2.3 billion of the state's share of the settlement. The money helps fill the void left in many of the state's communities by the withering tobacco industry.

The foundation is set to vote Thursday on the plan. It would enable unemployed workers in rural areas to be retrained at community colleges for jobs making drugs, vaccines, enzymes and agricultural products.

At North Carolina State University, a factory would provide the environment and expertise to help train students for such jobs. And new programs at N.C. State would offer undergraduate and graduate degrees in biotechnology.

Estimates of the projects' cost have grown from $45 million just a few months ago to $84 million requested by the universities and community colleges this week.

Much of the increase was driven by North Carolina Central University's backers who argued for an expanded role for the campus.

At a meeting of the foundation's program committee, Hal Price, a Golden LEAF consultant, said the total cost could be trimmed closer to $60 million, with $34 million for N.C. State, $18 million for N.C. Central and $9 million for community colleges.

Golden LEAF staff recommended giving about $45 million and suggested that the universities and the legislature come up with the rest.

"Our philosophic point of view is there should be other contributors than Golden LEAF," said Alexis Vaughn, vice president of strategic initiatives at the foundation. "The institutions that will own and operate these facilities should have some kind of skin in it from the beginning."

But university leaders said they wouldn't be able to come up with private donations fast enough to get the initiative going quickly.

N.C. State Chancellor Marye Anne Fox said it might take a decade to raise the money from the private sector.

"If we have to go to the legislature," she said, "you can guess as well as I how long that would take."

The initiative was driven by pharmaceutical and biotech industry leaders, who want highly skilled workers for their plants.

Some Golden LEAF board members said they were philosophically opposed to footing the entire bill because the program is geared toward improving economic conditions, particularly in areas dependent on the tobacco industry.

Some questioned why NCCU's part of the project has ballooned from $5 million earlier this year to its request this week of $27 million.

Durham's business leaders and politicians pushed for N.C. Central to get the factory facility proposed for N.C. State. If the plan is approved, N.C. Central would get new labs and faculty to support undergraduate and graduate degree programs in applied bioprocessing.

The university estimates 50 students a year would enroll in those programs, with as many as 200 on campus at any given time. Under the community college proposal, students could get hands-on training at several lead campuses and through a network that would stretch to rural areas throughout the state. Those students would travel to N.C. State to be trained on state-of-the-art equipment at the factory.

Information from: News & Observer

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