Kerry's High Tech Plan. CNET reports that presidential candidate John Kerry promised investments in research and broadband, plus tax breaks for start-ups and other small businesses, at a rally in Silicon Valley.
Details of Kerry's technology platform have been long awaited by the Silicon Valley community.
Kerry's proposal involved several components, including:
- cutting long-term capital gains taxes resulting from investment in small businesses and “reforming or eliminating” regulations that he said block America's high-tech competitiveness. He specifically cited venture capital investment in technology start-ups.
- offering a 20 percent tax credit to companies that invest in next-generation high-speed Net infrastructure. First responders, such as fire fighters and emergency crews, should have universal access to broadband services by the end of 2006, he said;
- increases in government-funded university research, including the extension of the research and development tax credit;
- more investment in elementary and secondary math and science education, and incentives for colleges to increase the number of science and engineering graduates.
Kerry said he would pay for these proposals by auctioning off TV spectrum, after a transition to digital television, for other licensed use. That and other spectrum auctions would raise $30 billion in revenue, he said. [Daily Wireless]