by Judith Gilleland, Middletown City Manager
Reprinted from the OML update: HB 3, a placeholder bill to repeal the state estate tax, was introduced. Your defense of the proceeds of that tax and what those proceeds mean for your community to your legislators is critical to our efforts on this important issue. We have never taken a position on the estate tax itself, but we have strongly fought to have any repeal of the tax paired with a replacement revenue source from the state to avoid the serious damage to local services an outright repeal will cause.
Despite what some may tell you, this discussion has only begun. With your help, we can make progress on this issue. Middletown receives in excess of $800,000 annually in estate tax. Combine that with $1.7M in annual local government funding, and $600,000 in block grant funds, we could have serious issues if any of these sources were reduced.