From the Asbury Park Press, July 16, 2012:

New Jersey’s formerly booming high-tech sector has a lower profile, battered by a series of corporate contractions over the last 16 years. But there are new efforts by state officials and business leaders to help the state recapture its once-dominant share of jobs in science, engineering and technology.

NJPP president Gordon MacInnes tells the Press that it would be wiser for state officials to forget tax cuts and free up money instead “for building on the science, research and technology foundation that brought us prosperity in the first place.”

The state should also assist higher education institutions with planning costs and boost scholarship money for graduate, undergraduate and postdoctoral students in fields such as mathematics, computer science, genetics and nanotechnology, MacInnes said.

“Why don’t we talk about restoring the luster to New Jersey as a place where research takes place (and) innovation happens? That’s a much more effective path to restoring prosperity,” said MacInnes, a Democrat and former state senator.