Committeewoman Cara Jensen

Elected officials should provide more targeted tax cuts for small businesses, loosen access to credit, invest in transportation and infrastructure, and expand trade opportunities under a St. Louis economic jobs plan U.S. Rep. Russ Carnahan, D-Mo., released Tuesday.

The 33-page plan is the result of nearly 50 meetings with business, labor and community leaders, and from responses to a survey that was sent to more than 200 businesses and entrepreneurs throughout the region, Carnahan’s office said.

The report suggests government leaders:

• Provide tax cuts for small businesses, including tax incentives for employers who hire new workers, payroll tax breaks and ending the capital gains tax for small businesses
• Loosen access to credit
• Invest in transportation and infrastructure to create short-term jobs and build transportation networks needed to sustain long-term economic developmentExpand trade opportunities
• Resolve uncertainty around health-care reform, energy costs and reliance on foreign oil
• Reestablish fiscal restraint by readopting “Pay-As-You-Go,” Congressional spending, which expired in 2002 and requires all new policies that reduce revenue or expand spending to be fully paid for over five and 10 years

Download a copy of the plan here.