Erskine Bowles on Technology

Support building high-speed network infrastructure

While the private sector will do most of the actual building, government can develop a regulatory system that promotes deployment of a high-speed Internet, provide - for a limited time - a one-time, $300 dollar tax credit to individuals subscribing to high-speed Internet access with speeds greater than 20 megabits per second, provide more funding for the advanced cyber infrastructure program, commit federal agencies to working with technology developers and users to help formulate IT reinvention roadmaps for a variety of industries, set a goal of providing all government services online by 2007, stimulate broadband demand by supporting online educational content, and award a cash prize to the state that has the largest percentage of its population on high speed Internet services by 2006 as a way to encourage the design of broadband-friendly telecommunications policies. Source: Bowles Jobs Plan Jul 5, 2004

Expand the research and development tax credit

We should make the research and development tax credit permanent, and expand it from 20 to 30 percent. We should create a flat 30 percent credit for company expenditures on collaborative research at universities, federal laboratories, or in research consortia. We should make more small and start-up companies eligible for the credit. The total cost would be $5 billion per year. The credit has provided a powerful incentive for increasing research by American industry. Source: Bowles Jobs Plan Jul 5, 2004

Support e-commerce & other R&D initiatives

We need to fund the development of e-commerce. We should establish a next-generation manufacturing R&D initiative, establish an Industry Research Alliance Challenge Grant Fund, fully fund the Enterprise Integration Act, promote the digital economy to drive information technology investment, and support the Nanotechnology Research and Development Act. Source: Bowles Jobs Plan Jul 5, 2004

Invests in highways, ports, airports, water/sewer systems

The US Department of Transportation calculates that each $1 billion in new infrastructure investment creates 47,500 new jobs. Job creation is desperately needed in the transportation and construction sectors, which have been especially hard hit in the recession. Many of these needs would be met by the Rebuild America Act of 2003, introduced in the Senate last summer. I would support a significant investment in American infrastructure over ten years, and would fund it at nearly $3 billion per year. Source: Bowles Jobs Plan Jul 5, 2004

Support an Economic Impact Study for the Garden Parkway

This project is a 27 mile road that is the top transportation and economic development priority for Gaston County, North Carolina. The Garden Parkway is the best opportunity to transition our economy into the future. Its construction will create jobs. Its development will create tax base for our local government. The increased accessibility that it will provide will make it much easier for workers to access jobs throughout the region. Employers will have greater access to workers throughout the region Source: Bowles Jobs Plan Jul 5, 2004

Create a Textile-Related Economic Development District

Some key features of the TREDD include: eligibility for special economic development, workforce training, highway construction, low cost housing and other grants from government agencies; a combination enterprise zone/empowerment zone that would provide financial benefits to businesses investing in new or renovated facilities that would create new jobs in the zone; annual grants to municipalities required by the federal government to expand their water-sewer systems to handle textile plant effluents. Source: Bowles Jobs Plan Jul 5, 2004

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