00HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 34                                                                                         
01 Relating to the federal estate and gift taxes.                                                                          
02 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA:                                                              
03  WHEREAS our form of government is premised on the right to enjoy the fruit of                                        
04 one's labor, to own one's own possessions, and to pass on one's bounty to one's heirs; and                              
05  WHEREAS, when a person works for a lifetime to build assets, saving and investing                                    
06 money, building a business, or buying and developing land, that person has a moral right to                             
07 pass those assets on to the person's family without being penalized with inheritance taxes; and                         
08  WHEREAS there is a fundamental problem of double taxation when a decedent's                                          
09 survivors are forced to pay an inheritance tax on assets acquired by the decedent with after-tax                        
10 dollars; and                                                                                                            
11  WHEREAS we need a tax system that encourages lifelong saving and enterprise and                                      
12 that rewards, rather than punishes, the traditional family; and                                                         
13  WHEREAS we need a government that rewards "blood, sweat, and tears" by                                               
14 abolishing the estate and gift taxes completely; and                                                                    

01  WHEREAS repealing the federal estate and gift taxes is not an issue of politics and                                  
02 wealth but a matter of principle;                                                                                       
03  BE IT RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature respectfully requests the United                                    
04 States Congress to enact H.R. 86 and repeal subtitle B of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986,                            
05 relating to the federal estate, gift taxes, and generation-skipping transfer.                                           
06  COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the Honorable Bill Clinton, President of the                              
07 United States; the Honorable Al Gore, Jr., Vice-President of the United States and President                            
08 of the U.S. Senate; the Honorable Trent Lott, Majority Leader of the U.S. Senate; the                                   
09 Honorable J. Dennis Hastert, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives; the Honorable                                
10 Christopher Cox, U.S. Representative from California, primary sponsor of H.R. 86; and to the                            
11 Honorable Ted Stevens and the Honorable Frank Murkowski, U.S. Senators, and the                                         
12 Honorable Don Young, U.S. Representative, members of the Alaska delegation in Congress.