ABOVE: Vermilion County farmers listen in at Farm Bureau Legislators Meeting.
The on going effort to reform the Illinois Estate Tax, known commonly as the “Death Tax,” was the dominant issue at Monday (Mar 2nd) morning’s Vermilion County Farm Bureau Legislators Meeting. With GOP State Senator Chapin Rose and State Rep Brandun Schweizer in attendance, stories were exchanged about why “Family Farm Preservation Act” legislation should be passed in Springfield.
Under current law, when the owner of a farm passes away; if the total value of land, equipment, and assets is over $4 million dollars, then the entire value is subject to the Estate Tax; often preventing the owner’s children from continuing to farm the land. That’s what happened to Carl Phillips, who owns farmland northeast of Potomac. When his father Clinton died, he was forced into early retirement.
AUDIO: The only way we could pay the estate taxes to keep the farm was to sell all the farm equipment. So, I didn’t have any farm equipment to continue farming with.
Phillips still owns the land, but with all his equipment gone, he now leases the land to other farmers. Phillips was supposed to testify in Springfield last year in favor of reform legislation, but House Bill 2677 was never called to the floor for a vote. Schweizer says the proposal would have raised the total asset value to $6 million for when the tax kicks in; AND, it would only tax the value above $6 million; not the entire amount.
State Senator Chapin Rose (left) and State Rep Brandun Schweizer (right) during Mon March 2nd Vermilion County Farm Bureau Legislators Meeting. (State Rep Adam Niemerg spokesperson Linda Lane is in the middle.)
Senator Rose says there are two major problems. ONE, there are too many reform proposals from too many parties; AND TWO, when non-farming legislators from Chicagoland hear about “$4 million in assets,” they assume it’s just talk about millionaires. He says the solution is for the Illinois Farm Bureau to take the lead; and to build a wider coalition of support using small business owners from throughout the state, who often deal with the exact same thing.
AUDIO: All these companies keep leaving Illinois. Why is that? It’s because of this ridiculous Estate Tax. It’s one of the worst in the country. And it’s just frankly immoral that you work your whole life, pay taxes your whole life, and then the day you die the government comes in and takes your property.
Schweizer agrees.
AUDIO: Once we get the Farm Bureau and all the other organizations together; I think everyone’s really trying to do this on a separate scale, and not coming together. But once we get all those folks coming together; it’s really just about the education piece of it
Rose and Schweizer also agree that the current battle between Illinois and Indiana for a new Bears stadium is a two-sided mirror. It’s GOOD that legislators are seeing how bad Illinois taxes are, but it’s BAD that it seems to take an issue involving the Bears for people to pay attention.
AUDIO: (ROSE) You’ve lost Boeing, you’ve lost Caterpillar, right? Jimmy John’s. All these companies leaving Illinois. Why does it take the Chicago Bears leaving to finally get Chicago to wake up: (SCHWEIZER) When it comes to finally waking some folks up, that make those policy decisions that we have that are creating a significant amount of businesses downstate to leave; I think that’s what it’s going to take.
For the record, Rose did mention at one point that he sees Arlington Heights winning out over Indiana for the Bears in the long run.
