S-0638.2  _______________________________________________

                    SENATE JOINT MEMORIAL 8002

          _______________________________________________

State of Washington      56th Legislature     1999 Regular Session

By Senators Deccio, Rasmussen, McDonald, T. Sheldon, Johnson, Winsley, Sellar, Shin, Prentice, Loveland, Haugen, McCaslin, Goings, Thibaudeau, Morton, Long, Hale, Rossi, Zarelli, Honeyford, Horn, Benton, Swecker, Oke, Finkbeiner, Roach, Hochstatter and Stevens

Read first time 01/14/1999.  Referred to Committee on Ways & Means.

Eliminating the death tax.

    TO THE HONORABLE WILLIAM J. CLINTON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, AND TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE AND THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, AND TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES, IN CONGRESS ASSEMBLED:

    We, your Memorialists, the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Washington, in legislative session assembled, respectfully represent and petition as follows:

    WHEREAS, Legislation will be introduced in the United States House of Representatives to do away with the federal estate taxes, more commonly referred to as the "death tax"; and

    WHEREAS, The federal inheritance tax is a principal cause of the inability of small businesses including minority and female-owned businesses to perpetuate themselves from one generation of ownership to the next, resulting in the liquidation of such small businesses to pay the tax, which including income taxes can result in a total tax as much as seventy-five percent; and

    WHEREAS, The United States Department of Commerce statistics show that small businesses generate more than eighty-five percent of all jobs created in the United States; and

    WHEREAS, This tax generates a minuscule one percent of the budget and after the Internal Revenue Service collection costs and administration the net result to the federal budget is less than one-third of one percent; and

    WHEREAS, In the 1981 general election, the voters of the State of Washington voted to abolish the state inheritance tax, with an overwhelming sixty-six percent thereby supporting the idea of nurturing family-owned businesses, to preserve local ownership and retain jobs;

    NOW, THEREFORE, Your Memorialists respectfully pray that the Congressional Delegation of the State support legislation abolishing the federal estate tax.

    BE IT RESOLVED, That copies of this Memorial be immediately transmitted to the Honorable William J. Clinton, President of the United States, the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and each member of Congress from the State of Washington.

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