Prosperity from innovation: A vote for the IT Innovation Tax Credit

If there’s been one dominant driver of economic expansion these past 30 years, it’s been the phenomenal gains in productivity made possible by information technology. This nation’s ace in the hole, IT innovation has fueled our booms, created entirely new economic sectors, and helped keep recent recessions relatively shallow.

Galvanized by an op-ed piece penned by economist Joseph E. Stiglitz in the November 30th New York Times, Genius.com CEO David Thompson has launched a petition among Silicon Valley CEOs and investors urging Congress to enact a tax credit for companies that continue to invest in information technologies and services in the current recession.

This is a terrific idea. As the petition states, it will “bolster our technological leadership and ensure that we preserve and add to the 2.5 million jobs targeted by President-elect Obama.”

It’s not about feathering the nest of technology providers. It’s about ensuring that technology-using companies maintain their competitive edge, increase their productivity, and emerge from this downturn in a strong position globally.

I’m pleased to be an early signer of the Innovation Advocates for Growth petition. I not only urge fellow tech CEOs to sign, but encourage the leaders of technology-using companies - as well as individual technology consumers - to jump on the IT Innovation Tax Credit bandwagon through letters of their own to representatives in Congress. The credit will be a proactive and powerful economic stimulus, and an investment in the continued productivity and prosperity of this country.