A. L. (Butch) Alford, Jr. Lewiston Morning Tribune Lewiston, ID	Alton F. Baker III The Register-Guard Eugene, OR	Chris Bennett The Medium Seattle, WA
Jerry Brady Post Register Idaho Falls, ID	Scott Campbell The Columbian Vancouver, WA	Chuck Cochrane Yakima Herald-Republic Yakima, WA
Wm. Stacey Cowles The Spokesman-Review Spokane, WA	Nancy L. Freeman Kodiak Daily Mirror Kodiak, AK	Deborah Frol Walla Walla UB Walla Walla, WA
Stephen Hartgen The Times-News Twin Falls, ID	Peter Hovitz Eastside Journal Bellevue, WA	David Lord Pioneer Newspapers Seattle, WA
Elizabeth McCool The Bulletin Bend, OR	Ted Natt The Daily News Longview, WA	Thad Poulson Daily Sitka Sentinel Sitka, AK
Ronald Stewart The News-Review Roseburg, OR	Dwight Tracy Herald and News Klamath Falls, OR	Dennis Waller The Chronicle Centralia, WA
Lew Williams, III Ketchikan Daily News Ketchikan, AK	L. Stedem Wood Skagit Valley Herald Mt. Vernon, WA	Rufus Woods The Wenatchee World Wenatchee, WA

cc:

Evonne Agnello Pacific Northwest Newspaper Association	Diana Kramer Washington Newspaper Publishers Association	Virginia Moorehouse The Bakersfield Californian Bakersfield, CA
Rowland Thompson Allied Daily Newspapers of Washington	Alexis Scott Reeves Atlanta Daily World Atlanta, GA	Dorthy Leavell Chicago Crusader Chicago, IL

Death Tax Newsletter

This bi-monthly newsletter is produced by the Seattle Times for family owned newspapers. Please share it with other family businesses in other industries. Any suggestions for distribution or content will be greatly appreciated.

MORE TERRIFIC NEWS!

The momentum for death tax repeal continues to build as the second Democratic Congressman from Washington State publicly commits to repeal. Congressman Adam Smith has joined Democratic Congressman Brian Baird in committing to death tax repeal.

Congressman Smith has introduced his own bill, HR 1278, titled Family Owned Business Survival Act of 1999, for partial repeal of the estate tax.

Smith’s approach is to attempt to craft language that exempts businesses from the estate tax. We have not had a chance to analyze the language yet to see if it does what it is intended to do. Past attempts to "define" or "carve out" family businesses have been tremendously complicated and confusing. We are skeptical this can be done, but we will take a careful look before responding to the Congressman.

Fortunately, Congressman Smith says he is very flexible about the language and considers this a "starting point". His view is that when Congress actually reviews the financial impact (of repeal) on the budget it will be too big a hit for them. He feels his approach would be a small budget hit and have more chance for success.

Remember the CBO (Congressional Budget Office) scores death tax repeal as a $198 million hit in the budget. They only look at gross revenues so they ignore 1) the fact that the tax nets less than 35% or less than $99 million, and 2) that the negative economic impact is much greater than the $99 million.

We will carefully look at his language and work with the death tax coalition to give him feedback.

In the meantime, he said he would support whatever repeal bill or effort Congress would actually consider.

Congressman Smith has a very good understanding of this issue and how it impacts the economy and family businesses. He, and Congressman Brian Baird, are excellent allies – and for all the right reasons in that they understand how destructive this tax is and what poor public policy it is. Any support shown to Congressmen Smith and Baird would be very helpful right now.

Web site - www.deathtax.com

Did You Know?

The death tax brings in less than 1.1 percent of total federal revenues.

And, it is estimated it costs the government 65 cents of every dollar raised for enforcement and compliance.

The death tax is a jobs issue.

Repeal of the tax would result in 145,000 new jobs over the first 9 years of repeal.

And that doesn’t include the countless jobs that would be saved if the death tax didn’t force 70% of family and small businesses to liquidate or sell out after only one generation.

99% of all private businesses have fewer than 500 employees. This represents 50% of all private sector jobs which generate 50% of all revenue.

77% of the American voters polled by the 60 Plus Association indicated that they would be "more likely" to vote for their member of Congress if he or she voted to eliminate the death tax.