03/22/05 Gregoire estate tax would exempt farms

Washington Ag March 22, 2005 Governor Christine Gregoire yesterday unveiled a 25.8 billion dollar General Fund budget proposal for Washington which she says would get the state up and going. While the governor's spending plan does not call for any general tax increases there are two tax proposals to provide money for education. One involves estate taxes, but it wouldn't apply to family farms. Gregoire: "To partially restore the estate tax to about 130-million dollars a biennium. I intend to raise the threshold of 900,000 to two-million and I intend to exempt farms." The governor also proposes raising cigarette taxes. Gregoire also mentioned agriculture in talking about economic development. Gregoire: "And with the two bills I've introduced to the Legislature, the technology transfer for our higher education research institutions and our Life Sciences Discovery Fund where we can revolutionize health care and agriculture, there is the promise of 20,000 jobs." Gregoire's budget includes proposals announced last week for water storage projects to address long term water needs. Those include funding for studying the Black Rock Reservoir project and development of new storage on the main stem of the Columbia River. It will be up to the legislature to finalize a budget for the state's next biennium. I'm Bob Hoff.