Activists: Estate tax repeal will cost Maine $166 million-year

wmtw.com ^

[chance33_98]

Activists: Estate tax repeal will cost Maine $166 million-year

Monday,October20,2003,10:54 AM

AUGUSTA (AP) -- Activists opposing the permanent repeal of the estate tax are saying the repeal will force more federal borrowing and deflect money for needed state programs into the pockets of the wealthiest two percent of Americans.

The group released two reports Monday morning detailing the impact of repeal on Maine's biennial budget and nonprofit organizations in Maine.

Unless the estate tax is permanently repealed, it will disappear in 2010 and reappear a year later.

A 2001 law gradually reduced the tax rates on inherited estates and repealed the tax as of 2010. But Senate rules designed to limit budget deficits forced lawmakers to make the repeal expire in 2011.

Activists say the estate tax now accounts for about $30 billion a year in federal revenue and $166 million for Maine. They say permanent repeal will make it tougher for Maine to balance its budget and provide needed services.

President Bush wants Congress to make the estate tax repeal and other tax cuts permanent. He says those tax cuts are a key to building confidence among employers and strengthening the economy.

[dirtboy]

A 2001 law gradually reduced the tax rates on inherited estates and repealed the tax as of 2010. But Senate rules designed to limit budget deficits forced lawmakers to make the repeal expire in 2011.

I guess if you want to fully exploit this tax break, you'll have to plan to off yourself in 2010.

[scory]

Two words and a concept foreign to virtually every politician in the land: CUT SPENDING.

[dts32041]

How about living within your means and cutting welfare payments back and stop buying laptops, or supporting somaili terrorists.

[Semper Paratus]

And if they didn't have it so high how many former Mainers might have stayed?

[dts32041]

I probably would have, and I didn't have a pot to pee in.

Maines taxes just suck.

[Sir Gawain]

Estate tax repeal will cost Maine $166 million-year

How can it cost a state? It's not the state's money.

[OXENinFLA]

MAIN - Where we're just waiting for you to die.

[OXENinFLA]

E

whoops

[facedown]

ping

[Peace will be here soon]

Estate tax repeal will cost Maine $166 million-year

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New Headline: Estate tax repeal will give Maine taxpayers $166 million-year

[Batrachian]

Maine fun fact: Maine is the only state with a one syllable name.

[VRWCmember]

Activists opposing the permanent repeal of the estate tax are saying the repeal will force more federal borrowing and deflect money for needed state programs into the pockets of the wealthiest two percent of Americans.

Put this statment through the truthometer and it comes out: Activists concede that state spending programs funded by the estate tax divert $166 million from the pockets of taxpayers into the coffers of bureaucrats.

[Centurion2000]

NEWS FLASH TO STATE : It's not your money ... you only get it at the point of a gun.

[Recovering_Democrat]

CORRECTION:
Estate tax repeal will save Maine's citizens $166 million-year.

[armymarinemom]

Here's a good place to cut spending... Do not put crazy people on the river!!!! They want to renovate the old water works and convert it for housing to hold our mentally ill. Bright idea, put the mentally ill right on the edge of the river. This would cost millions and be dangerous to boot. For those not from Maine, the old water works is a run down but historic building. If they were to house the mentally ill it would muddle the building and cost a fortune. Each unit would cost around 150,000 for a one bedroom living area. The slate roof would be replaced with metal. Idiots.

[Tom D.]

It will not decrease tax collections by $166 Million. It may cost Maine that sum in estate tax collections, but with folks keeping more of their own money longer, rather than giving it away to their often times less successful kids, who are in lower income tax brackets (or if as I suspect, residents of Maine are older on the average than the rest of the country, giving it away to kids who live outside of Maine) they will collect less income and capital gain taxes from the interest, dividents, and capital gains realized by those younger kids.