Trump can help the community banks boost development
As a lifelong Democrat, I’m proud to say that I voted for President-elect Donald Trump and contributed to his campaign. Trump is, first and foremost, a businessman and a job creator. As a developer, he understands the policies that spur economic growth as well as the regulations that hold American business and job creation back.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in the area of real estate development.
Under President Barack Obama, federal regulators seem to believe that we are in the midst of an “economic bubble” and are trying to slow down the economy by decreasing the loan to value lending for real estate development projects. The maximum is now 65 percent of costs ( just last year it was 85 percent). In addition, they are trying to restrict lending further by requiring a borrower to have a minimum of 15 percent of in-place value as equity.
Surely, Trump understands that community banks must be allowed to operate as they historically have to be an engine for growth and affordable housing.
During the campaign, Trump put forward the most dynamic and creative pro-growth economic plan of any of the 18 candidates who initially ran for president.
Dropping the corporate tax rate below that of China or Mexico will surely create one of the greatest economic booms in U.S. history. His plan to bring trillions of dollars parked abroad back into the country for fair taxation, called repatriation, is a necessity. A tax cut for all Americans, as proposed by Trump, worked for Presidents John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan to create economic expansion and job growth.
Trump also has the unique opportunity to revitalize our inner cities and create the real prospect of prosperity for African-Americans and others in the minority community. Trump should strongly consider steep increases in funding for minority business enterprise, as well as using targeted tax breaks to spur growth and revitalization of our inner cities.
There is no issue more important than revitalizing our economy, which will sharply increase revenues for individuals, businesses and government.
As Kennedy said, “A rising tide lifts all boats.” No one understands this better than Donald Trump.