Research and Jobs Media Conference Remarks

Jobs are a key issue in this campaign for Mayor. But so is keeping a lid on increased spending. We must get a handle on the City’s budget mess. That means we have to encourage job building efforts that provide great results for our limited bucks.

There is a little known and certainly under utilized asset in this community that has invested $100 million dollars, resulting in about 3,000 good jobs. And the cost to city of Lincoln taxpayer? Nothing. Not one cent out of our city’s General Fund budget.

Now, that’s real bang for the city’s buck.

But that asset is threatened by increased competition across the nation that is taking the people and the financial resources that drive this job creating engine.

I am talking about the University of Nebraska and it’s research facilities. I am talking about the loss of top flight researchers in recent months who have been attracted to other universities. The University’s loss is the City’s loss.

When Ruma Banerjee, a brilliant UNL researcher, left for the University of Michigan, we lost a woman who had generated one of the largest grants in the University’s history, $10 million dollars. While that money will stay at UNL, Ms. Banerjee will take approximately $600,000 in grant money, and UNL loses another $250,000 in indirect cost money.

Because of the value they offer our community, we can’t afford to let another one get away. Andrei Sokolov is a great scientist whose work in nanotechnology was featured in a recent Economist magazine article. His research offers the possibility of storing a bit of data on a single atom—which would revolutionize the technology of the industry and possibly attract high tech firms to Lincoln.

What can the City do to help keep these researchers in the Community?

First and foremost, we must partner with the University of Nebraska to make the University of Nebraska Research corridor a reality. The corridor, as envisioned by the 2015 Visioning Group, would run along the Antelope Valley improvements. It would include research facilities, more lab space, and private, job-creating research facilities that would locating near the new University buildings.

But this vision requires strong leadership from the Mayor to help move the State Fair, a critical component of the plan. The Mayor must be involved because of the tremendous importance this project has for our job creation future. By contrast, my opponent is on record saying that State Fair Park is an issue for the State, not the City—another indication of his “sit back and wait” attitude—an attitude that tolerates more top flight researchers leaving the University.

Second, the city must cooperate with the building of new research facilities by providing needed infrastructure in a complete and timely manner. A little accommodation by the City in this area can go a long way.

Third, the city must work with the University in assembling land for the research facilities. The City currently owns various parcels of land in the Antelope Valley area.

Without top researchers, we will not be able to transfer the technologies they create for business application. This transfer is critical to the development of new businesses that pay good wages in Lincoln.

But State Fair Park is the key. Competitors from across the U.S. and the world are moving quickly to do the very same thing in their communities. Mr. Svoboda’s “sit and back and wait” approach to the problem only allows our competitors to attract jobs and innovation that could locate here.

If Lincoln is serious about good jobs and serious about getting that big bang for our buck, then it is imperative that the University’s research capacities grow and expand. I will be a Mayor who leads us in the right direction.

Thank you.