Washington - In Our View - 'Yes' on Initiative 920

The Columbian

For economic reasons--but more significantly for familial reasons--the estate tax is simply wrong. That's why The Columbian endorses Initiative 920 on the Nov. 7 ballot.

This measure would eliminate Washington state's estate tax, which currently and unfairly extracts graduated taxes ranging from 10 percent to 19 percent from estates above a $2 million threshold.

Initiatives through the years have frequently taken on exaggerated nicknames, but in this case "death tax" is not a careless euphemism. It's an accurate description. Only death triggers this assessment. That's an insult to Washingtonians of all economic levels.

When the Legislature brought back the estate tax earlier this year, we wondered what part of a double-barreled "No!" the lawmakers didn't understand. Voters said "No!" to the state estate tax in 1981 when an overwhelming 67 percent passed Initiative 402.

Then, denunciation of the state estate tax was even more convincing last year in the state Supreme Court, which unanimously rejected the concept.

Still, the state's lawmakers resurrected the estate tax. We hope Initiative 920 produces the third and decisive strike.

Supporters of the state estate tax complain that its repeal would deprive public schools of crucial funding, which the state Department of Revenue estimates is about $127 million a year. But that ignores the fact that legislators used education (after all, who opposes education?) as a smokescreen for imposing the twice- rejected death tax. School funding in our state properly comes from the general fund, and students should not be held hostage by death-tax proponents.

On the economic side, the estate tax hampers small business owners and business development, restricts job creation, discourages entrepreneurial endeavors and penalizes savings.

Admittedly, not everyone understands economics, but everyone understands families, and that's where the estate tax is even more unjustified. Senior citizens spend entire careers jumping through tax hoops to become successful and pass that success on to their heirs. To sock them with one more tax is unfair, and to assess that tax posthumously is outrageous.

Advocates of the death tax argue that only a few hundred estates (less than 1 percent) are affected. All the more reason to get rid of the tax, we say. Why should only 1 percent of any group be singled out for a special assessment?

Columbian Publisher Scott Campbell has contributed to the Initiative 920 campaign. The newspaper editorially supports I-920 because of what we oppose: the absurd governmental intrusion upon a family estate at the worst possible time, upon the death of a loved one.