Estates Of Pain (Blue State America Taxes People At Death, Loses Retires And Revenue Alert)

Opinionjournal.com ^ | 08/01/05 | Wall Street Journal Editorial

[goldstategop]

The law requires that any resident of the Nutmeg State with an estate of more than $2 million pay a death tax of up to 16%--merely for the privilege of dying in Connecticut. The legislators in Hartford hope that the tax will raise $150 million in revenue each year--money that will come in only if the legislators in Hartford are also planning to build a Berlin Wall around the state.

Otherwise, expect a stampede of retirees and family businesses out of Connecticut into the many states without a death tax, such as Florida, which has a constitutional prohibition against estate taxes. Thanks to the Connecticut death levy, a successful small business owner with a $10 million estate can save about $1 million by packing up and heading south. ....

In Washington state, Democratic Governor Christine Gregoire, riding high on her disputed 186-vote victory in last November's elections, linked arms with the Democrat-controlled legislature and overturned a ballot initiative approved by 67% of voters in 1981 that had outlawed a state estate tax. Now Washington imposes a 19% death tax, among the most onerous in the nation....

Not surprisingly, it is generally the liberal, tax-and-spend blue states that are frantically reinstating punitive taxes on death. Will they ever learn? Over the past 20 years about 1,000 people every day have been fleeing these high tax blue states, for low tax red states. It's one reason the Northeast has suffered economically, and declined politically in terms of electoral votes.

George Pataki has effectively declared: "Invest anywhere but in New York." And that's why you can expect to see thousands of creative people from the Northeast whistling Dixie in the months and years ahead.

[prairiebreeze]

Thanks for the list. DANG! Nebraska and Oklahoma, very disappointing.

[muir_redwoods]

Every New England state except New Hampshire, Hmmm,

[Bulwark]

What we're talking about are northern liberals who supposedly will leave their northern states for economic reasons, head to the southern states, and bring their liberals ideas with them.

You better hope everyone up North stays there... someone has to pave the roads down South, and guess who's footin the bill? That's right... the North!

[N. Theknow]

Thanks to the Connecticut death levy, a successful small business owner with a $10 million estate can save about $1 million by packing up and heading south. ....

The loving and charming Mrs. Theknow and I will be moving by the end of the year.

25 years ago we moved here, CT, for my job. We used to laugh at the fools who lived in MA and paid such outrageous taxes. Now they laugh at us.

[nutmeg]

Connecticut ping!

Please Freepmail me if you want on or off my infrequent Connecticut ping list.

[Little Bill]

The death Tax in NH applies to those estates which are not left to immediate family, at least as my account says.

[muir_redwoods]

So I can leave it to my daughters and not pay through the nose. Still sounds like a plan.

Of course, I do still have to die so it's not all roses.

[OESY]

Grassley: No death tax repeal this year, 8/31/05


Majority Leader Bill Frist has scheduled a vote on House-passed legislation that would permanently repeal the death tax. The vote is scheduled for next week in the Senate.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley says it's not going to happen.

Congressional Quarterly (subscription):

While the House passed the bill in April on a 272-162 vote, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Grassley predicted Aug. 30 that Senate leaders will not have the 60 votes needed to overcome Democratic objections and proceed to a final vote on the bill. “It’s not going to get done,” he said in a conference call with Iowa farm broadcasters, adding that there is “zero” chance of full repeal.

Still, conservatives and some in the business community are pushing for the vote to put Democrats on record; they want deficit-wary Democrats from conservative-leaning states to face the difficult choice between voting ‘yes’ or angering their supporters in the business community back home.
Grassley's pessimism is unhelpful, even if it is realistic. The Senate vote next week will be close, and stranger things have happened.

However, pro-repeal forces have the right perspective. If this vote fails, Democrats need to be on record as opposing this unjust tax on families and small businesses at the time of loved one's deaths.

John Fund, writing for the WSJ Political Diary (subscription) has the whip count:

The free-market Club for Growth has unveiled ads targeting Senators in Montana, North Dakota, Washington and Oregon who haven't yet agreed to repeal. A similar ad chastising Senator John McCain ran in New Hampshire, where the first primary of the 2008 presidential race will be held. Perhaps not coincidently, tax opponents yesterday received a boost when Senator McCain indicated he would vote to end debate.

That means tax opponents are shy by one or two votes from the 60 they need. Four Democrats -- Bill Nelson of Florida, Ben Nelson of Nebraska and the two senators from Arkansas, Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor -- are in favor of repeal. But GOP Senators Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island and George Voinovich of Ohio continue to resist the entreaties of their GOP colleagues. Both express concern about a negative impact on the deficit, despite studies that show the estate tax probably brings the federal government little revenue due to increasingly imaginative estate planning.

posted by chappy22, http://fromthebleachers.blogspot.com/

COMMENT: You have to give Grassley credit: He is one stand-up guy, who tells it like it is, levels with his voters, says in all candor some of the stupidest things ever heard on Capitol Hill, engages his mouth before his brain more often than not, has no concept of how to play his political cards, must rely on miracles to put together any deals with his Senate colleagues, has any number of excuses why things didn't get done, needs to step aside so others can manage the bill-shepherding process he can't....