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2001 SESSION
013366432WHEREAS, the industry of agriculture is recognized as the largest single industry in the Commonwealth and plays a critical role in defining the character of the Commonwealth; and
WHEREAS, it is the stated policy of the Commonwealth to conserve and protect agricultural lands as valued economic resources that provide food and other agricultural and forest products, essential open spaces for clean air sheds, watershed protection, and wildlife habitat, as well as for aesthetic purposes; and
WHEREAS, the 2000 Session of the General Assembly passed Senate Joint Resolution 134, which created a farmland protection task force to identify challenges facing farmers in the Commonwealth and to examine existing and potential measures that can be employed to encourage rural landowners to maintain the agricultural uses of their land; and
WHEREAS, the liability for the federal estate tax is one of the challenges that the farmland protection task force has identified as facing farmers in the Commonwealth and their families in keeping their land in use as production farmland; and
WHEREAS, an increasing concern of farmers in the Commonwealth and their families is the impact that the payment of federal estate taxes upon the death of one generation will have upon the ability of subsequent generations to maintain the agricultural uses of their land; and
WHEREAS, production farmland is being converted to nonagricultural uses at an increasing pace as many families sell their land to avoid the future consequences of federal estate tax liability or are forced to sell their land to satisfy current federal estate tax liability; and
WHEREAS, the conversion of farmland to nonagricultural uses has many negative effects on the quality of life in the Commonwealth, including the spread of harmful urban sprawl and the loss of environmentally sensitive land, and undermines the Commonwealth's food production capabilities; and
WHEREAS, the elimination of the federal estate tax would benefit farmers in the Commonwealth and their families as it would allow farmers and their families to maintain the agricultural uses of their land; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED by the Senate, the House of Delegates concurring, That the Congress of the United States be urged to enact legislation repealing the estate tax; and be it
RESOLVED FURTHER, That the Clerk of the Senate transmit copies of this resolution to the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, the President of the United States Senate, and the members of the Virginia Congressional Delegation in order that they may be apprised of the sense of the Virginia General Assembly in this matter.