Senate Bill sb1560

    Florida Senate - 2003        (NP)                      SM 1560

    By Senator Jones





    13-1108-03

  1                     Senate Memorial No. ____

  2         A memorial to the Congress of the United

  3         States, urging Congress to permanently repeal

  4         the death tax.

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  6         WHEREAS, under tax-relief legislation passed in 2001,

  7  the estate tax, commonly referred to as the "death tax," was

  8  temporarily phased out rather than permanently eliminated, and

  9         WHEREAS, women and minorities are very often owners of

10  small and medium-sized businesses, and the death tax prevents

11  their children from reaping the rewards of their life's work,

12  and

13         WHEREAS, farmers and other small businesses will face

14  losing their farms and businesses if the Federal Government

15  resumes the heavy taxation of citizens at death, and

16         WHEREAS, employees suffer when they lose their jobs due

17  to the liquidation of small and medium-sized businesses in

18  order to pay death taxes and because high capital costs

19  depress the number of new businesses that could offer them

20  jobs, and

21         WHEREAS, if the estate tax had been repealed in 1996,

22  over the subsequent nine years the United States economy would

23  have averaged as much as $11 billion per year in extra output,

24  and an average of 145,000 additional new jobs would have been

25  created, and

26         WHEREAS, the persistent uncertainty created by the

27  sunset provision prevents families and small businesses from

28  taking advantage of the temporary repeal, and

29         WHEREAS, having repeatedly passed both the United

30  States House of Representatives and the United States Senate,

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    Florida Senate - 2003        (NP)                      SM 1560
    13-1108-03




  1  elimination of the death tax has proven to hold wide

  2  bipartisan support, NOW, THEREFORE,

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  4  Be It Resolved by the Legislature of the State of Florida:

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  6         That the Congress of the United States is requested to

  7  support, work to pass, and vote for the immediate and

  8  permanent repeal of the death tax.

  9         BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be

10  dispatched to the President of the United States, to the

11  President of the United States Senate, to the Speaker of the

12  United States House of Representatives, and to each member of

13  the Florida delegation to the United States Congress.

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