Open letter to Mitt Romney.

• Author: Emord, Jonathan W.
• Position: ECONOMIC OBSERVER - Viewpoint essay

DEAR GOV. ROMNEY: Critics claim, perhaps with good reason, that you have yet to connect with the American voter in a meaningful way, a way necessary to cause them to vote for you rather than simply against Pres. Barack Obama. Your campaign rightly centers on the dire economic condition Pres. Obama has created for our country: his profligate spending placing the national debt at more than 15.5 trillion dollars and the deficit over 1.3 trillion dollars. You have promised to cut Federal spending, reduce taxes, and liberate the market from constrictive regulation. May I suggest a method by which you meaningfully could connect with voters nationwide, convey your key economic message in a profound way, establish a favorable contrast with Pres. Obama, and inspire tens of millions of Americans to vote for you with zeal?

You could identify 15 locations in the U.S. hardest bit by the financial crisis and left unaided by the Obama Administration over the last four years. You then could propose to label these areas Federal Enterprise Zones. Under legislation you would promise to introduce your first day in office, each of these areas would be entitled to extraordinary tax relief designed to maximize economic development.

First, any business located in an Enterprise Zone that employs people resident there and any that would relocate to such an area and would employ people who reside there would receive a 50% reduction in Federal corporate tax or, if a sole proprietorship or other pass-through entity, a 50% reduction in individual Federal income tax.

Second, all Federal regulations that would impose on any business a burden requiting an expenditure in a single year of $10,000 or more would be banned in the Enterprise Zone area.

Third, states and localities that will support the Federal initiative by cutting taxes by 50% on corporations and on sole proprietorships and other pass-through entities in the Enterprise Zone would be liberated from the need to comply with any unfunded Federal mandate.

Fourth, individuals and entities from anywhere in the U.S. that contribute money to relief funds established in the Enterprise Zones at hospitals, physicians offices, and private charities in aid of the indigent would receive a $1.50 reduction in Federal tax for every one dollar contributed. Those funds would have to be expended solely for the purpose of providing low-interest loans for new business startups that employ people resident in the Enterprise Zone and...