Legislature to take up UH incentive proposals

By Beverly Creamer
Advertiser Education Writer

Proposals to accelerate the University of Hawai'i's role in jump-starting and diversifying the economy will be part of the economic package offered in the coming legislative session by Rep. Brian Schatz, chairman of the House Economic Development Committee.

The three proposals:

• A tax credit for the construction of privately financed dormitories near the state's college campuses to support UH president Evan Dobelle's vision of college towns. It would both stimulate a new atmosphere around college campuses and "increase vital construction jobs," said Schatz.
• A commercial construction tax credit for the private construction of laboratory space to encourage development and expansion of a biotech industry in the state. Such credits would help "make biotech more than a pie-in-the-sky dream," said Schatz.
• Changes in the state ethics code to encourage university professors and researchers to turn their discoveries into commercial ventures.

Currently, said Schatz, the code discourages commercialization of intellectual property.

"This code was written with government officials in mind, to eliminate self-dealing, unacceptable conflicts of interest and other obviously corrupt practices," said Schatz. "But it applies to the UH faculty ... and, strictly interpreted, does not permit UH professors to take an idea generated in conducting academic research and to make a profit in the marketplace with it."

Schatz said that other major research universities, such as MIT and Stanford, do not operate this way, having a code "that presumes that the commercialization of intellectual property is ethical and to be encouraged." In the past, said Schatz, many potentially viable ventures never got off the ground because having to go before the Ethics Commission was an impediment for researchers.