Senate Resolution 46

A RESOLUTION REQUESTING THE CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI TO SUPPORT AND WORK FOR THE PERMANENT REPEAL OF THE DEATH TAX.

WHEREAS, under tax relief legislation passed in 2001, the death tax was temporarily phased out, not permanently eliminated; and

WHEREAS, women and minorities are very often owners of small and medium-sized businesses, and the death tax prevents their children from reaping the rewards of a lifetime trying to make a better life; and

WHEREAS, farmers will face losing their farms if the federal government resumes the heavy taxation of the estates of people who invested most of their earnings back into their farms; and

WHEREAS, employees suffer when they lose their jobs because many small and medium-sized businesses are liquidated to pay death taxes and because high capital costs depress the number of new businesses that could offer them a job; and

WHEREAS, if the estate tax had been repealed in 1996, over the next nine years the United States' economy would have averaged as much as $11 Billion per year in extra output, and an average of 145,000 additional new jobs would have been created; and

WHEREAS, the persistent uncertainty created by the sunset provision prevents families and small businesses from taking advantage of the repeal; and

WHEREAS, having passed both the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate, elimination of the death tax has proven to hold wide bipartisan support:

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI, That we do hereby request our elected representatives in the United States Congress to support and work for the permanent repeal of the death tax.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That copies of this resolution be furnished to the Mississippi congressional delegation and made available to the Capitol Press Corps.