textfiles-politics/politicalTextFiles/samllbs.txt

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          CLINTON/GORE ON SMALL BUSINESS



Bill Clinton and Al Gore believe in business.  They
believe in the marketplace.  They know that
economic growth will be the best jobs program this
country will ever have.  Small businesses create
most of the new jobs in this country and they need
to flourish if we are all to prosper.

America cannot afford another four years without a
strategy to make our economy grow again.  We must
put an end to the era of rewarding outrageous
executive pay and shipping American jobs overseas
while leaving small businesses without basic
support.

Bill Clinton and Al Gore will make the change.
They will encourage small business people and
entrepreneurs to take risks, and reward those with
the patience, the courage, and the determination to
create new jobs.  A Clinton/Gore Administration
will provide incentives for those who start new
businesses and develop new technologies.  And it
will make sure that the small defense contractors
who helped win the Cold War don't get left out in
the cold.

Create incentives for small businesses to invest

*    Offer a new enterprise tax credit that
     provides a 50 percent tax exclusion for those
     who take risks by making long-term investments
     in new businesses.

*    Provide a targeted investment tax credit to
     encourage investment in new plants and
     productive equipment here at home that we need
     to compete in the global economy.

*    Make permanent the research and development
     tax credit to reward companies that invest in
     ground-breaking technologies.

Contain small business health care costs

*    Provide affordable, quality health care for
     all Americans, while protecting small
     businesses from rising health care costs.

*    Phase in small employer and new business
     health care responsibilities until costs are
     reduced.  In the interim their employees will
     be covered by the public health care program
     with co-payment requirements to discourage
     over-utilization and encourage shared
     responsibility.

*    Stop underwriting practices that divide
     Americans into small risk groups and raise the
     cost of health care coverage for small
     business.  Institute a broad-based community
     rating system to guarantee access, continuity
     and renewability of coverage.

*    Allow small businesses to buy into a public
     health program if it is less expensive than
     similar plans offered by private insurers.

*    Promote managed competition by eliminating
     barriers to small businesses that want to band
     together to form larger groups to purchase
     health insurance at lower prices.

Facilitate defense conversion for small defense
contractors

*    Increase technical, financial, and marketing
     assistance to Americas small businesses, which
     will be critical in the provision of new,
     high-tech jobs for former small defense
     contractor employees.

*    Provide small business conversion grants
     through the Small Business Administration
     (SBA) to help small defense contractors
     finance their transition from defense to
     civilian production.

*    Create a small business Technical Extension
     Service, based on the successful Agriculture
     Extension and Minnesotas effective Project
     Outreach Program, to give small businesses
     easy access to technical expertise.  A primary
     goal of the Extension Service will be to
     provide information on marketing, finance and
     technology to assist firms converting to
     civilian production.

*    Require the SBA to set aside a percentage of
     its loan program for successful small business
     defense contractors attempting to convert to
     civilian enterprise.

Increase small business exports and ensure fair
trade

*    Work to create an open trading system and
     support efforts to reduce trade barriers
     through the General Agreement on Tariffs and
     Trades (GATT).

*    Pass a sharper, stronger Super 301  trade bill
     to encourage our trading partners to permit US
     goods access to their markets.

*    Negotiate a North American Free Trade
     Agreement to promote increased trade with
     Mexico, but only if its fair to American
     farmers and workers and contains provisions to
     protect the environment.

Encourage small businesses to invest in rural
areas and inner-cities

*    Set up a national network of small business
     community development banks like the South
     Shore Bank of Chicago and its rural
     counterpart, the Southern Development
     Bancorporation in Arkansas, to give low-income
     entrepreneurs the tools they need to start new
     businesses.  Small business is the key to
     employment in our cities and must be
     encouraged.  The South Shore Bank has proven
     that free enterprise can flourish with the
     proper financial support in the most
     challenging of circumstances.

*    Create urban enterprise zones to encourage
     investment in inner-city development and
     provide jobs for local residents.

*    Rewrite and pass a stronger Community
     Reinvestment Act that challenges banks to lend
     to entrepreneurs and promotes development
     projects that reinforce community and
     neighborhood goals.

*    Support the Minority Small Business Investment
     Company and other programs that encourage
     development of minority-owned small
     businesses.

Expanded opportunity for small business

*    In the last half of the 1980s,  because of
     Bill Clinton's leadership, the number of
     manufacturing jobs in Arkansas grew at ten
     times the national average.  Much of the
     growth was in small business. For example,
     from 1979 to 1991, there was a 142 percent
     increase in the number of Arkansas companies
     exporting products. Nearly 75 percent of these
     companies had less than 200 employees.

*    For the year ending in May 1992, Arkansas
     ranked second nationally in absolute creation
     (+29,000) and second nationally in job growth
     rate.

*    Created the Arkansas Development Finance
     Authority (ADFA) to provide a source of
     long-term, low-interest, and fixed-rate
     financing for economic development projects.
     ADFA was among the first agencies in the
     nation to develop an industrial bond pooling
     program, which enables small businesses to
     participate in the bond market and brings down
     the net interest rate for Arkansas borrowers.
     ADFAs flexible regulations have also brought
     millions of out-of-state dollars into
     Arkansas, and have provided 46 companies more
     than $65 million in bond loans.

*    Reorganized the non-profit Arkansas Capital
     Corporation, which makes reduced interest
     loans to small businesses that do not meet
     requirements for conventional bank loans.
     Between 1985 and April 1992, the ACC approved
     more than $18 million in economic development
     loans.  The ACC also sponsored the formation
     of the Arkansas Certified Development
     Corporation, which serves as a vehicle for
     long-term financing under an SBA program.

*    Helped establish the private Southern
     Development Bancorporation, which since 1988
     has made more than $12 million in development
     loans, mainly in Arkansas small businesses.

*    Established a Linked Deposit Program, which
     allows up to $50 million of state funds in
     lending institutions to be loaned to small
     businesses at below-market rates.

*    Senator Gore is the author of the Small
     Business Innovation Development Act of 1982
     which directs the federal government to
     provide a more equitable and effective
     distribution of federal research and
     development funds toward small businesses.

*    Cosponsored numerous bills to encourage small
     business ownership and maintain a favorable
     tax policy for small business growth.

*    Cosponsored the Small Business Capital
     Formation Act, which would provide
     preferential tax treatment for capital gains
     on small business stock held over four years.

*    Cosponsored a bill which would amend the
     Internal Revenue Code to promote small
     businesses.  Support for minority businesses

*    Bill Clinton created the Minority Business
     Development Division of the Arkansas
     Industrial Development Commission.  The
     Division has given $5.2 million in financial
     assistance to minority-controlled businesses
     in Arkansas and offers regular financial
     advice.

*    Created a Small Business Revolving Loan Fund
     to provide loans to small and minority
     businesses, mainly in rural areas.

*    Al Gore cosponsored numerous bills designed to
     encourage small business ownership and
     maintain a favorable tax policy  for small
     business growth.

*    Has consistently supported programs to assist
     businesses owned by minorities and women.