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Tech. 07/10/2001-Updated 10:49 AM ET Tech flails cities that put money into industry By Jon Swartz, USA TODAY When city officials in Austin, Texas, committed $50.5 million to create a downtown high-tech center last year, it seemed a wise investment. The fast-paced Internet economy was purring, and local politicians envisioned gleaming new facilities in a "Digital Downtown" that would employ 7,500 workers and spur development of housing, retail stores, restaurants and clubs. But the economy soured, and Digital Downtown now resembles a ghost town. The cornerstones of the city's project, including Intel, Vignette and Computer Sciences Corp., have delayed or pulled the plug on 111 construction. High-tech hubs in the USA and abroad are having their share of low times. Communities at rode the New Economy in the late 1990s have faltered, their cyber plans turned to cyber dust. ationwide, high-tech communities are feeling the pain of shutdowns, layoffs, commercial real estate vacancies, evaporating venture funding and slower growth of new companies and jobs. Since January 2000, 555 dot-corns have closed, and there have been 127,000 Internet-related layoffs. Monday, online grocer Webvan laid off 2,000 workers in California, Washington, Illinois and Oregon. The most exasperating losses, however, are for local governments and economic development agencies that poured taxpayers' money into tech ventures that have yet to pay off. Public money has funded everything from construction tax breaks for offices and factories, to job training, to venture capital funds for financing start-ups. But New York City's nearly 2-year-old, $25 million tech investment fund hasn't yet invested in any firms because it can't find any worthy candidates. "The money is just sitting there," says Jonathan Bowles, research director at the Center for an Urban Future, a policy think tank in New York. Despite the downturn, most cities and states are still willing to court high-tech firms, because they and their high-income workers generate generous tax revenue and pump cash into local economies. The average annual output of tech workers is $200,000—double that of other white-collar workers— according to the Milken Institute, an economic think tank. Large tech players such as Intel in Texas and Cisco Systems in California are among the biggest taxpayers in those states. Still, some regions have yet to see their tech investments pay off: •In Austin, chipgiant Intel last Marchput the brakes on a 10-story office building that the city helped rY