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A group of US senators thinks the government should help small town businesses stay open, even expand, by offering tax
breaks and investment cash to slow a de-population trend across the Great Plains.
The senators named the bill the New Homestead Act after the 1862 law that offered free land to the migrants who settled the
West.
The deal sounds much like incentives given to people who live in sparsely settled Alaska.
Help would also be provided to 21 of West Virginia's 55 counties.
Thirteen senators are sponsoring legislation to help counties that have lost more than 10 percent of their population since
1980. Most of those counties lie in a swath stretching from Texas and New Mexico to Montana and North Dakota. .
The bill would provide up to $10,000 to help with college loans, for anyone who lives and works in an eligible county for
five years. It also would offer tax credits and new deductions to home buyers and businesses, and a venture capital fund to
guarantee private investments in small-town businesses.
The likelihood of the bill passing Congress this year is slim.
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