Topinka hands out millions to tech businesses

Further subsidizing certain companies in the state, Illinois treasurer Judy Baar Topinka was in the Quad Cities as part of her "'Technology Express', a three-day, 10-city tour throughout Illinois to explain how the Technology Development Fund can help create jobs and investment opportunities."

Three Illinois companies will receive a total of $7.5 million from the state's $50 million Technology Development Fund. The investments could bring new technology jobs and stabilize the state's economy, she told a group Monday in Moline.

Beecken Petty O'Keefe and Co., an equity firm specializing in companies working in health care, and M.K. Capital, a Skokie, Ill., group investing in technology markets will receive $3 million each from the fund. IllinoisVENTURES, which helps fund numerous startup companies, will receive $1.5 million.

No mention was made of how many millions would be made available to the all-important blogger component of the state's future tech growth.