79R5020 PJR-D

By:  Williams, et al.                                           S.C.R. No. 23 



CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
	WHEREAS, Hardworking American women and men spend their 
lifetime saving to provide for their children and grandchildren, 
paying taxes all the while, and just when the purpose of that saving 
is about to be realized, families find that between 37 percent and 
55 percent of their after-tax savings are lost to the federal death 
tax; and
	WHEREAS, The death tax, which includes both estate and gift 
taxes and the tax on generation-skipping transfers, was not 
permanently eliminated but only temporarily phased out by the 107th 
Congress when it passed the Economic Growth and Tax Relief 
Reconciliation Act in June 2001; and
	WHEREAS, Women and minorities very often are owners of small 
and medium-sized businesses, and the death tax prevents their 
children from reaping the rewards of a lifetime spent by parents 
trying to make a better life for their families; and
	WHEREAS, Similarly, farmers and other family business owners 
will face the potential loss of their farms and businesses if the 
federal government resumes the heavy taxation of citizens at their 
death; and
	WHEREAS, Employees suffer the loss of their jobs when small 
and medium-sized businesses are liquidated to pay death taxes, 
while the unemployed and those newly entering the workforce suffer 
because high capital costs depress the number of new businesses 
that could offer them a job; and
	WHEREAS, If the death tax had been repealed in 1996, the 
United States economy would have averaged as much as $11 billion in 
extra output per year over the following nine years and also would 
have created an average of 145,000 additional new jobs per year; and
	WHEREAS, In addition, the persistent uncertainty created by 
the sunset provision in the federal law prevents families and small 
businesses from taking advantage of the temporary repeal; and
	WHEREAS, Having repeatedly been passed by both the U.S. House 
of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, legislation eliminating the 
death tax has enjoyed wide bipartisan support, as shown by passage 
of the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act just four 
years ago; and
	WHEREAS, The Family Heritage Preservation Act, which already 
has garnered 111 cosponsors in the U.S. House of Representatives 
and was referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means on January 
4, 2005, proposes to repeal the federal death tax, including the 
estate and gift taxes and the tax on generation-skipping transfers; 
now, therefore, be it
	RESOLVED, That the 79th Legislature of the State of Texas 
hereby respectfully urge the Congress of the United States to 
support H.R. 64, the Family Heritage Preservation Act, and work 
toward passage of an immediate and permanent repeal of the death 
tax; and, be it further
	RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward official 
copies of this resolution to the president of the United States, to 
the speaker of the house of representatives and the president of the 
senate of the United States Congress, and to all the members of the 
Texas delegation to the congress with the request that this 
resolution be officially entered in the Congressional Record as a 
memorial to the Congress of the United States of America.