Uncertain Future: To Save Family Farms, Small Businesses, Drop State Death Tax

RHODA ELLIOTT
Richmond Times-Dispatch

Small businesses are the heart and soul of our communities. They are the places where you get your hair cut, eat lunch with your buddies, and shop for many of your everyday needs. Small businesses and their owners are vital cogs in the engine that drives the American economy. However, every small business in our great Commonwealth finds itself vulnerable when confronted with the estate tax bill. Contrary to popular belief, the estate tax, also known as the death tax, absolutely affects those other than the wealthy.

This year's General Assembly session marks perhaps the final opportunity for the legislators of the Commonwealth to band together and finally eliminate the death tax. Virginia was very close to ridding itself of the estate tax in 2003 before Governor Mark Warner killed the repeal bill in the veto session.

With a budget surplus of more than $2 billion and wide-reaching bipartisan support, 2006 is our best chance to give small family businesses and family farmers relief from the Virginia's double-taxing estate tax policy.

I applaud the House of Delegates, Republicans and Democrats, for working to repeal the death tax by a bipartisan vote of 93-7, yet there is much work left to be done.

As a small business, we have felt the effects of the death tax first-hand. My father, William Richardson, Sr., started Bill's Barbecue in 1930. Our family has carried on his dream of providing great food and a friendly environment, while at the same time providing for his family and for the many employees from our communities.

WHILE MY family business survived the passing of my father and the effects of the death tax, many others have not been as fortunate because of the costs associated with paying Virginia's death tax. I cannot express enough the impact that this tax had on our family.

Bill's Barbecue is one of the success stories in keeping our business in the family, but we are still at risk if the current estate tax legislation remains on the books.

Again, even though Virginia is in the midst of a budget surplus greater than $2 billion and there is bipartisan support to get rid of the death tax, there is always a chance the repeal legislation will not make it through both houses of the General Assembly.

Governor Tim Kaine pledged his public support for the repeal throughout his campaign, and numerous Virginia legislators have gone on record in recent weeks supporting the repeal, including Senate Finance Committee chairman John Chichester. I now ask for their continued support.

WE HAVE BEEN in business for nearly a century and would like to continue to serve the many friends and families who have patronized our restaurants for all of these years. In order to do that, we have to be vigilant in keeping the death tax in the back of our minds. When we are ready to pass the family business -- my dad's legacy -- to our children and grandchildren, will we be able to? We should be able to do that without passing on the struggle of taxing them at an already painful time. This is a death tax it exacerbates the loss of a loved one by putting the family business and the family's livelihood at risk.

Protecting family-owned businesses and farms is, and should be, a top priority for state government. The last thing any of us wants to have to do is to sell or break up our business to pay the death tax.

Eliminating this unfair tax would ensure that small family businesses will have a future for generations to come.

Rhoda Elliott is the president of Bill's Barbecue, Inc.