RESOLUTION

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WHEREAS, if the death tax had been repealed in 1996, the United States economy would have realized billions of dollars each year extra output and an average of 145,000 additional new jobs would have been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 Senate of the Twenty-third Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2005, the House of Representatives concurring, that the State of Hawaii's elected Representatives and Senators in the United States Congress are respectfully requested to support, work to pass and vote for the immediate and permanent repeal of the death tax; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the President of the United States, the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, and the State of Hawaii's Congressional Delegation.

Report Title:

Urging the congressional delegation of the State of Hawaii to work to abolish the death tax permanently.