***** Reformated. Please Distribute. 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.