On February 3, Virginia’s House of Delegates voted 69-29 to repeal its state estate tax, bucking a trend among state legislatures to work to preserve the tax’s revenue in a time of record setting state deficits. Governor Mark Warner (D) had petitioned hard to preserve this piece of revenue for Virginia, which is facing an estimated 1.1 billion budget gap for FY 2004, but the vote is being touted by the Republican-controlled legislative body as a “veto-proof” majority. Though repeal advocates in Virginia argued that repeal would protect the state’s small farms and family businesses, data from the USDA and the Federal Reserve show that both the average large farm and family business in Virginia already fall well below the current $1 million exemption under federal law.

The President (faced with a 6 percent unemployment rate, increased homeland security needs and costs, and a projected $300 billion deficit for the coming year) has decided that repeal of the estate tax must be made permanent – at all costs. And the costs are great: nearly $56 billion in the first full year of repeal. But you wouldn’t know it from the President’s budget charts.

In the last year or so, we’ve seen some relatively large federal assistance provided to a few fairly large private industries. Last year, it was the $15 billion grant and loan package to “bailout” the airline industry after the September 11 attacks. At the time, it was seen as the prudent thing to do, since the federal government had grounded all flights for days until it could return some sense of security to the skies. White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer explained that the assistance was necessary because "a safe, viable and effective commercial air travel system is important to America’s economy and to our way of life."

As noted on these pages many times over the last few months, the Senate is unique in its traditions and rules. One feature that helped earn the Senate the title of the “world’s greatest deliberative body” is its rules that allow for, and even necessitate, policy debates, which are a vital part of the legislative process. These rules push the Senate to work out differences between conflicting legislative proposals and help ensure that the voice of the minority is protected. To extend this principle to tax and spending issues, the Senate has special rules.

Given the decade of budget deficits facing the federal government, the fiscal crises being experienced by most of the states, and the need for resources to accomplish the priorities that many Americans identify as much more important than tax cuts, the following organizations came together to urge Congress to act during the coming year to stop the next phase-in of the tax cuts (which will occur in 2004). We urge people to begin a debate about what our national priorities are and whether we can afford more tax cuts, which will primarily only benefit wealthier Americans, as we face the challenges ahead.