Yesterday, the Virginia General Assembly adjourned (a) without passing a budget for state government for the next 2 years and (b) without repealing the death tax.

This is disappointing, but not unexpected, as repeal of the death tax or any major tax relief will have impact upon the state budget. The great disappointment is that while both chambers are so close and agree on most points about death tax repeal and the issues surrounding it, that they are unable to come to ultimate consensus.

Repeal of the death tax will be considered in the Special Session of the legislature called for March 27 and that will last until they reach a budget agreement. The House leadership announced publicly and assured the coalition privately that they would continue to work on repeal of the death tax in the Special Session. We also received assurances from key Senators that they would continue to pursue repeal of the death tax later this month.

However, they still need to restart negotiations and need to be reminded by members of the coalition that this is the year to vote to repeal the unfair death tax.

A special thanks is owed to Senator Tommy Norment and Delegate Bob Tata for their efforts this session and yesterday to fully repeal the death tax by 2007. They are committed to continuing to work on this issue during the Special Session.

We hope that as budget negotiators hammer out the details of the $75+ billion budget that they are able to continue to include full repeal of the death tax, which while significant tax relief, only accounts for about 1/750th of the state's budget over the next two years.

The only legislation that can be considered in the Special Session are those dealing with budgetary and revenue issues. This includes repeal of the death tax.

We will continue to keep you posted on developments. Legislators have now gone home, and we anticipate that budget negotiators continue their work in the coming week, even before the Special Session reconvenes.

Please feel free to call or email us, or your legislators, to find out the current status of efforts to repeal the death tax.

The General Assembly extended and/or had special sessions for budgetary issues often in recent years, including 1998, 2001, 2004 and this year. It is becoming pretty standard for such debates to extend beyond the regularly scheduled session, especially for budgets that now are $75 BILLION and growing. Special sessions have also occurred during the terms of many Governors in recent years, including George Allen, Gerald Baliles, Jim Gilmore, and Mark Warner.

While we would prefer to have ended the death tax during the regular session of the General Assembly, we will continue to work during the Special Session to pass legislation fully repealing the death tax by 2007.