Wall Street Journal editorial, Oregon’s Death Tax Defiers:

Small business owners and farmers have been some of the hardest hit by the tough economy, and those who stay afloat increasingly worry they won’t be able to pass on their enterprises to the next generation. In liberal Oregon, of all places, a measure will be on the ballot this November to ease the burden by eliminating the state’s death tax. …

Under current Oregon law, the tax kicks in at 10% on estates worth a mere $1 million and rises to 16% on estates of $9 million. That hits
many family-owned businesses and farms that wouldn’t qualify as rich even in Elizabeth Warren’s book of envy. …

Critics of the repeal initiative, known as Measure 84, claim the phase-out over three years will hurt the state’s general revenue fund and thus money for education or welfare. But death tax revenues make up less than 1.5% of Oregon’s general fund—roughly $100 million of the $7.5 billion annual budget.

Oregon is merely the latest in a wave of states that are considering or have repealed their estate levies. In 2001, all 50 states had death
taxes. By this summer 31 states had taken those taxes off their books, including most recently Tennessee, which is phasing out its tax over several years, and Ohio, which will eliminate its tax in January. …

[T]he standard liberal argument [is] that the estate tax hurts no one but the rich. Its biggest targets are family businesses, entrepreneurs and professional households that have saved over a lifetime, and that have already paid taxes on their income once or even two times. By punishing them, the economy suffers and so does everyone else.

The best reason to repeal the death tax is moral: It punishes a lifetime of thrift for the inevitability of death and no purpose but
punishment.