The great transfer of tax responsibility from the wealthy to everyone else has reached our state. I-920 has qualified to be on the ballot this year. Unless you are one of the wealthiest 250 people in the state, you really have no reason to vote for this.
The site mentions three very good general reasons for an estate tax:
The Estate Tax is the fairest way to raise revenue, from those most able to pay. The estate tax is the most progressive way available to raise revenue our state desperately needs to meet its commitments. Any other way we raise revenue will place a higher burden on lower and middle income families.
The estate tax is one way wealthy people pay back to society after they die for the benefits of the economic, judicial, educational, and transportation systems that helped make them rich. Paying the estate tax enables our society to invest in the next generation, who will build our future economy.
Permanent repeal of the federal estate tax (not the state estate tax) would cost the charitable sector more than $13-25 billion each year, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The estate tax encourages wealthy individuals to contribute to charities because the donations are exempt from the estate tax.
(An aside: the second reason is one I have espoused for years. I have used an analogy. If Bill Gates lived in Hong Kong, the government would not spend any money protecting his copyrights and trademarks, and he would be a schlub like you and me. He could not defend his copyright on his own. He needs the feds. The government protects his wealth using its might. Taxes are essentially protection money.)
Read about I-920 here.
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