State Rep. Farrell applauds House passage of estate-tax fix

Technical loophole closed to help fund education

Democratic 46th District State Rep. Jessyn Farrell praised fellow members of the House of Representatives for passing legislation last week that fixes a loophole in the estate tax that she says threatens to take away $160 million from K-12 education.

“In 2006 Washingtonians overwhelmingly supported an estate tax to help fund our schools and educate our children,” Farrell noted. “Today we chose kids over loopholes.”

The issue arose after the State Supreme Court ruled – in what is referred to as the Bracken case – that because of a technicality in how the estate tax was written, it did not apply to married individuals. Farrell said that the House bill corrects that mistake and brings the law back into alignment with what the initiative intended.

“There is no reason that we should treat a widow or a single mother worse than a married couple,” she said. “But because of a small technical detail that was exploited in our legal system that is where we will be left without this legislation.”

Farrell said that Washington’s estate tax only applies estates worth more than $2 million. There are 6.8 million people in the state and about 300 estates each year that meet that threshold.

“It’s not even the top 1 percent of our state that is affected by this – it’s the 1 percent of the 1 percent. Educating our children is far more important than allowing this new loophole to continue.”

Farrell represents Lake Forest Park and the rest of the 46th Legislative District.