"I am proposing an economic policy that's tried and tested, and built on our values. Fiscal discipline as the foundation and a new generation of investments to empower our people and unleash their potential. No runaway spending, no paybacks for the powerful interests and no budget-busting tax proposals." - Al Gore

The hard work and ingenuity of the American people, and careful fiscal management by the current Administration, have brought America to a truly historic moment. Recent economic growth estimates indicate that the federal budget surplus will be substantially bigger than had been expected. This expansion of the budget surplus presents both opportunities and challenges for the American people and their leaders. Al Gore is proposing a comprehensive tax plan with more than $500 billion in targeted tax relief for working families. The Gore tax cut will promote economic growth and encourage savings, and will fit within a responsible budget framework, one which ensures America is debt-free by 2012, saves Social Security, and strengthens Medicare.

Throughout his career, Al Gore has fought for targeted tax relief to help working families. He has fought to expand the Earned Income Tax Credit, helped deliver a $500 child tax credit, and worked for passage of Hope Scholarships to make the first years of college universally available. The result: the lowest federal tax burden in more than two decades for a typical middle-income family.

Al Gore proposes the following targeted tax cuts to:

• Help Working Families Care for Children and Aging Parents
• Making child care more affordable for working families by making the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit (CDCTC) refundable for the first time.
• Providing tax relief for stay-at-home-parents: and expand family leave for those working outside the home.
• Helping parents pay for after-school care through a new refundable After-School Tax Credit (ASTC) for children age 16 and under.
• Supporting families with long-term care needs through a $3,000 tax credit.
• Reward Work and Family
• Expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC).
• Marriage penalty tax relief by raising the standard deduction, so that a married couple would get the same standard deduction as if they remained single.
• Simplifying estate tax exemptions and raising the tax exemption for small businesses and family farms.
• Help Families Afford Health Care
• Making health insurance more affordable and more accessible for small businesses through a 25 percent tax credit for premium costs for each employee of a small business that decides to join a purchasing coalition.
• Assuring tax equity through a new tax credit for individual health insurance.
• Improve Education and Training
• Tax credits, School Modernization Bonds and Qualified Zone Academy Bonds over two years to modernize up to 6,000 schools.
• Helping families pay for college with the College Opportunity Tax Cut that allows families to take a tax credit or tax deduction for tuition.
• Save money for education with Tuition Savings Accounts.
• Create 401(j) Life-Long Learning Accounts that can be withdrawn and used tax-free if they are used for education or qualified life-long learning.
• Assist workers, up to $6,000, in obtaining training courses, or certification programs, that improve information technology skills.
• Make Retirement More Secure by Encouraging Savings
• Retirement Savings Plus: Tax free savings accounts that will enable working Americans to build a retirement nest egg in addition to Social Security's guaranteed benefit. The Federal Government would match individual contributions with government contributions, with lower income workers receiving the largest contributions.
• Tax incentives to help small businesses establish high-quality employee pension plans and proposals to simplify pensions and improve portability.
• Empower Communities
• Third round of Empowerment Zones to encourage economic growth in underserved areas.
• Low-Income Housing Tax Credit to expand and improve the quality of available low-income housing.
• Technology Bonds to help underserved communities develop their information infrastructure.
• Make the "Brownfields" tax incentive permanent.
• New Markets Initiative to provide credits to stimulate new private capital investments in economically distressed communities around the country.
• Clean Up the Environment
• Tax cuts to help communities and private landowners create parks and conserve lands.
• Better America Bonds to be used for preserving green space, creating or restoring urban parks, protecting water quality, and cleaning up "Brownfields."
• Tax incentives to increase energy efficiency and improve our environment including tax cuts that will encourage individuals and businesses to do the right thing for our environment and tax credits for energy-efficient cars, homes, and appliances.
• Encourage the Development of New Technologies
• Making the Research and Experimentation Tax Credit permanent and reforming the credit with respect to small businesses to make the credit partially refundable.

Cutting Taxes for America's Families

"I am proposing an economic policy that's tried and tested, and built on our values. Fiscal discipline as the foundation and a new generation of investments to empower our people and unleash their potential. No runaway spending, no paybacks for the powerful interests and no budget-busting tax proposals." - Al Gore

The hard work and ingenuity of the American people and careful fiscal management by the current Administration have brought America to a truly historic moment. Recent economic growth estimates indicate that the federal budget surplus will be substantially bigger than had been expected. This expansion of the budget surplus presents both opportunities and challenges for the American people and their leaders. Al Gore is proposing a comprehensive tax plan with more than $500 billion in targeted tax relief for working families. The Gore tax cut will promote economic growth and encourage savings, and will fit within a responsible budget framework, one which ensures America is debt-free by 2012, saves Social Security, and strengthens Medicare.

Throughout his career, Al Gore has fought for targeted tax relief to help working families. Over the last seven years, Al Gore has worked to provide tax relief to America's working families. He has fought to expand the Earned Income Tax Credit, helped deliver a $500 child tax credit, and worked for passage of Hope Scholarships to make the first years of college universally available. The result: the lowest federal tax burden in more than two decades for a typical middle-income family.

HELP WORKING FAMILIES CARE FOR CHILDREN AND AGING PARENTS

• Making Child Care More Affordable for Working Families: Al Gore is proposing to make the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit (CDCTC) refundable for the first time, so that families with no tax liability can receive up to $2,400 to help offset the cost of child care. For families earning up to $60,000, Al Gore proposes to increase the maximum level of the CDCTC from 30 percent to 50 percent boosting the amount of allowable child care expenses a family can claim.
• Provide Tax Relief For Stay-At-Home-Parents: Gore would provide tax relief for parents who stay at home to care for their babies and expand family leave for those working outside the home. Gore's plan would allow parents who stay at home with children under the age of one to use the child care tax credit by claiming assumed child care expenses of $500.
• Giving Parents A New After-School Tax Credit: Al Gore will help working families across America pay for the after-school programs of their choice through a new refundable After-School Tax Credit (ASTC) for children age 16 and under. This credit will build on the existing Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit (CDCTC), which is non-refundable and limited to children under 13. Young teenagers, who are unsupervised, are at the highest risk for getting into trouble with alcohol, drugs, crime, and self-destructive behaviors. This new credit will help the parents of five million young people ages 13 to 16 pay for quality after-school care. The ASTC would provide a credit of up to 50 percent, depending on income, for after-school costs.
• Supporting Families with Long-Term Care Needs Through a $3,000 Tax Credit: This initiative, for the first time, acknowledges and supports millions of Americans with long-term care needs and the family members who care for and house their ill or disabled relatives through a $3,000 tax credit. This tax credit compensates a wide range of formal and informal long-term care for about 2 million Americans.

REWARD WORK AND FAMILY

• Expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC): Al Gore is proposing to expand the EITC. According to estimates by the Department of the Treasury, this proposed EITC expansion would deliver tax relief for 6.8 million families. Al Gore's initiative builds on the 1993 expansion signed into law by the President, which provided a tax cut for 15 million families.
• Marriage Penalty Tax Relief by Raising the Standard Deduction: Al Gore supports marriage penalty tax relief by increasing the standard deduction, so that a married couple would get the same standard deduction as if they remained single. Raising the standard deduction for married couples filing joint returns to twice that of a single taxpayer would deliver substantial marriage tax relief to middle-class families. Everyone who claims the standardized deduction would benefit from the tax relief, especially middle class families.
• Estate Tax Relief for Working Families: Simplifying estate tax exemptions, Gore's plan would raise the tax exemption from $2.6 million to $5 million for each family. Most small business owners and family farmers already pay no estate tax on their properties. Gore's plan would eliminate estate taxes for more than 90 percent of family farms that currently do pay estate taxes, and more than 70 percent of small businesses that currently pay estate taxes, and provide some estate tax relief for all small businesses and family farms.

HELP FAMILIES AFFORD HEALTH CARE

• Making Health Insurance More Affordable and More Accessible for Small Businesses: Small businesses typically pay higher premiums for health care benefits. Administrative costs may consume as much as 40 percent of premium dollars. As President, Al Gore would make health insurance more affordable and accessible for small businesses by proposing a 25 percent tax credit for premium costs for each employee of a small business that decides to join a purchasing coalition (where businesses join together to negotiate for affordable health insurance options for employees).
• Assuring Tax Equity Through a New Tax Credit for Individual Health Insurance: While people receiving health insurance through their employers receive tax breaks, those without access to job-based health insurance receive no tax benefits. To fix this inequity, Al Gore is proposing a 25 percent refundable tax credit for people lacking access to employer-based health insurance who purchase coverage in the individual market. The principle behind this tax credit is similar to the principle behind the recent law that expanded health insurance deductibility for the self-employed. Al Gore's plan would also allow Americans 55 to 65 to buy into Medicare using this tax credit to make it more affordable. Also, children who are above 250% of poverty, but without health coverage, could also use this credit to buy into CHIP.

IMPROVE EDUCATION AND TRAINING

• Tax Credits For School Construction and Modernization: Children learn more easily modern classrooms than in run-down and overcrowded facilities. Last year, however, the National Center for Education Statistics reported that school buildings begin rapid deterioration after 40 years - and that the average public school in America is 42 years old. At the same time, rising student enrollment means that communities around the country have to build an additional 2,400 schools by 2003. To address this critical need, Al Gore is renewing his commitment to provide tax credits, School Modernization Bonds and Qualified Zone Academy Bonds over two years to modernize up to 6,000 schools.
• Helping Families Pay for College - College Opportunity Tax Cut: Al Gore will provide families with a tax deduction of up to $10,000 of tuition and fees for any post-secondary education, including training and graduate school. Families could take up to a 28 percent credit and, in general, the proposal would provide up to $2,800 annually in tax relief per family.
• Tuition Savings Accounts: Under his proposal, Americans will be able to save money for education with Tuition Savings Accounts tax-free and inflation-free. This proposal would make tax-free, inflation protected savings accounts for college more accessible and transferable as families move from state to state.
• Expand Worker Training and Skill Development: Every hard-working American should have the chance to use their best talents. Al Gore has proposed funding partnerships of employers, unions and others that will connect workers to the training they need; extend tax credits to employers who train their workers in the skills of the new economy; and provide new training allowances that will extend unemployment insurance for those who need time to finish their training courses.
• Create 401(j) Life-Long Learning Accounts: No American should be denied a chance to succeed in the Information Age. This proposal allows families and employers to contribute up to $2,500 a year into their 401(j) account. Invested earnings can be withdrawn and used tax-free if they are used for education or qualified life-long learning and grandparents and employers can contribute to a 401(j) account.

MAKE RETIREMENT MORE SECURE BY ENCOURAGING SAVINGS

• Retirement Savings Plus: Al Gore believes that we should look for new ways to help Americans save for their retirement -- while protecting guaranteed Social Security benefits. He is calling for the creation of Retirement Savings Plus accounts, new independent savings accounts that will enable families to save on top of Social Security's guaranteed benefits. These tax-free, voluntary accounts include a progressive match to encourage individuals to save and invest more for their retirement.
• Tax Incentives For Small Businesses To Offer High-Quality Pension Coverage: In an effort to encourage more small businesses to offer pensions for their employees, a Gore-Lieberman administration will provide a tax credit for the expenses of setting up a new pension plan. This credit would cover 50 percent of the administrative and retirement-education expenses of establishing a qualified plan, up to $2,000 of expenses in the first year of the plan and $1,000in the second and third years. This credit would be available for qualified businesses with fewer than 100 employees. Al gore will also reduce Internal Revenue Service (IRS) fees for small businesses choosing to begin to offer pension plans to its employees.
• Improving and simplifying pensions: Al Gore has a number of proposals to simplify and improve pensions, including securing workers rights by improving and enhancing disclosure rules, protecting benefits for firms that convert to cash balance plans, and making pensions easier to administer and understand.

EMPOWER COMMUNITIES

• Third Round of Empowerment Zones: This program provides tax incentives and seed money to underserved communities. Under the Vice President's leadership, the Empowerment Zone/Enterprise Community program, which supports community-based, comprehensive revitalization strategies, has leveraged over $10 billion in private, non-profit, and public sector investment. Al Gore supports creating a Third Round of Empowerment Zones to promote economic growth in underserved areas.
• Low-Income Housing Tax Credit: To expand and improve the quality of available low-income housing, Al Gore supports raising the allocation of low-income housing tax credits to states. This proposal would raise the state per capita cap from $1.25 to $1.75 beginning in 2001 and index it for inflation thereafter. This proposal would provide incentives to build and make an additional 180,000 units of affordable housing available to working families over the next five years.
• Technology Bonds: Based on the success of Empowerment Zones and Enterprise Communities, this approach will offer a combination of assistance through: (1) interest subsidies for Technology Community bonds, or (2) competitive grants and loans to underserved communities. The program will focus especially on small town and rural America and underserved areas in our cities, to make sure that these communities are not left behind in the digital revolution. Using a Technology Bond, or other financial support, local communities will be able to develop the infrastructure necessary to compete for economic growth. In addition to stimulating the creation of a local strategy for developing an information infrastructure, this program will offer targeted grants on a partially matching basis to communities for developing an Internet infrastructure, and technology training for students.
• Make The Brownfields Cleanup Tax Incentive Permanent: Al Gore has led the effort to cleanup "Brownfield" sites (abandoned industrial sites) in our communities. In 1997, a proposal to allow the immediate expensing of costs associated with the cleanup "brownfields" was enacted as a temporary tax incentive. Al Gore supports making the "Brownfields" tax incentive permanent.
• New Markets Initiative: Al Gore supports the creation of a New Markets tax incentive which would provide credits to stimulate new private capital investments in economically distressed communities around the country.

CLEAN UP THE ENVIRONMENT

• Tax Cuts For Conservation: Al Gore has proposed a series of new measures to help communities and private landowners create parks and conserve lands: a 50 percent reduction in capital gains taxes on the transfer of farms or other private property when they are placed under a conservation or agricultural easement, to protect them for future generations; expansion of a current estate tax deduction for landowners who transfer properties near cities, parks, or wilderness areas to conservation; an increase in the tax incentives for reforestation on private lands.
• Better America Bonds: Al Gore supports providing tax credits to pay the interest on bonds for investments by state, local, and tribal governments. The bonds can be used to preserve green space, create or restore urban parks, protect water quality, and cleanup "Brownfields." These bonds will leverage $10.7 billion of bonding activities over the next ten years.
• Tax Incentives To Increase Energy Efficiency And Improve Our Environment: Al Gore believes that our natural resources must be protected. He will work to enact sensible and effective programs and tax cuts that will encourage individuals and businesses to do the right thing for our environment. He supports tax credits for energy-efficient cars, homes, and appliances. [LINK TO ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY ISSUE PAGE]

ENCOURAGE THE DEVELOPMENT OF NEW TECHNOLOGIES

• Making the Research and Experimentation Tax Credit Permanent: Al Gore believes the R&E Tax Credit has been critical to our nation's stunning economic growth. It has provided incentives for private-sector investment in research and innovation that has helped increase America's economic competitiveness and enhance U.S. productivity. Gore is calling to make the R& E Tax Credit permanent so that companies can rely on the full benefits that the credit provides and plan their research budgets accordingly. Al Gore also believes the R & E Tax Credit needs to be reformed, especially with respect to small businesses. A partially refundable credit for small businesses is a sound investment.

Source: Al Gore for President 2000 Web Site