Kauffman foundation CEO proposes "Startup Act" to promote growth

Kauffman foundation CEO Carl Schramm and his V-P of research Robert Litan have crafted a proposal to stimulate economic growth by making it easier to start companies.  The proposal comes in reaction to a recent Kauffman study that found a sharp drop in the rate of new business formation.  Specific steps include (these are all quotes from a Kauffman press release):

• Welcoming immigrants capable of building high-growth companies to the United States by providing "Entrepreneurs’ visas" and green cards for those with degrees in science, technology, engineering and math.

• Providing new firms with better access to early-stage financing, creating capital gains tax exemptions for long-held startup investments, providing tax incentives for startup operating capital, facilitating access to public markets, and allowing shareholders of companies with market cap below $1 billion to opt-in under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

• Accelerating the formation and commercialization of new ideas by creating differential patent fees to reduce the patent backlog and providing licensing freedom for academic innovators.

• Removing barriers to the formation and growth of businesses through the introduction of automatic 10-year sunsets for all major rules, establishing common-sense and cost-effective standards for regulations, and making assessments of state and local startup and business policies.

The full proposal can be found here.  This is certainly much fresher thinking than what we are hearing from either major political party.