House Concurrent Resolution 56

A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION REQUESTING THE CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI TO WORK TO ABOLISH THE DEATH TAX PERMANENTLY.

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

WHEREAS, farmers and other small business owners will face losing their farms and businesses if the federal government resumes the heavy taxation of citizens at death; and

WHEREAS, this is a tax that is particularly damaging to families who are working their way up the ladder and trying to accumulate wealth for the first time; and

WHEREAS, employees suffer layoffs when small and medium businesses are liquidated to pay death taxes; and

WHEREAS, if the death tax had been repealed in 1996, the United States economy would have realized billions of dollars each year in extra output and an average of 145,000 additional new jobs would have been created; and

WHEREAS, having repeatedly passed in the United States House of Representatives and Senate, repeal of the death tax holds wide bipartisan support:

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI, THE SENATE CONCURRING THEREIN, That the Mississippi Legislature requests that our elected representatives and senators in the United States Congress support, work to pass and vote for the immediate and permanent repeal of the death tax.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That copies of this resolution be furnished to Mississippi's Congressional Delegation and to the members of the Capitol Press Corps.