Some States are Stealing from the Dead

Some States are Stealing from the Dead, is my title, but in this article from Forbes, it is actually called "Where Not To Die in 2013", detailing how it's just not the Federal Government but the States also steal from the dead. And I take exception to the wording that the new Federal Law concerning how much you owe Big Daddy when you die is generous. How does any government think that you owe them after you die is beyond reasonable.   This is the ultimate in "Taxation Without Representation".

Think you don’t have to worry about estate taxes because of the new generous federal estate tax law? Not so, for families in 21 states and the District of Columbia where separate state levies are still a big concern. “For the vast majority of people who are wealthy, the fear factor of the federal estate tax is gone, but many still need to focus on state estate and inheritance taxes,” says Martin Shenkman, an estate lawyer in Paramus,

What makes this extra tricky is that state estate and inheritance taxes have been in constant flux over the last decade. And it’s not just the list of states that has been changing, but in some states, the level at which the tax kicks in has been changing (both up and down). So it’s important to stay on top of this to avoid a surprise tax bill.

Thanks to the fiscal cliff tax deal (the American Taxpayer Relief Act), the federal estate tax exemption of a generous $5 million per person, indexed for inflation, is now permanent. So for 2013, up to $5.25 million of an individual’s estate will be exempt from federal estate tax, with a 40% tax rate applied to any excess over the exemption amount.

By contrast, states with estate taxes typically exempt $1 million or less per estate from their tax and impose a top rate of 16%. New York, for example, sets its exemption at $1 million. So the estate of a person dying in New York with $5.25 million would owe no federal tax, but would owe New York $420,800, calculates Donald Hamburg, an estate lawyer with Golenbock Eisenman in New York City.

Six states levy only an inheritance tax, with the rate depending on the relationship of the heir to the deceased and the taxes kicking in, in some cases, on the first dollar of bequest. Two states, Maryland and New Jersey, impose both. Maryland, for example, imposes an estate tax of up to 16% above a $1 million exemption, and a 10% inheritance tax on every dollar left to a niece, nephew, friend or partner, but no inheritance tax on money left to children, grandchildren, parents or siblings. (Any estate tax owed is reduced by the inheritance tax paid.) As in the federal system, bequests to a spouse are tax-free.

Lately, the trend is towards eliminating state estate taxes, or at least lessening the tax bite by increasing the amount exempt from the tax. Ohio no longer has an estate tax, effective Jan. 1, 2013 (Republican Gov. John Kasich signed the repeal law in 2011). Delaware falls off the list effective July 1, 2013 when its current temporary estate tax expires. Indiana’s inheritance tax is repealed effective Jan. 1, 2022 (Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels signed the repeal law last year).

Meanwhile in Indiana the amount that is exempt from the state inheritance tax is going up each year, from $1.25 million this year, to $2 million in 2014 and $5 million in 2015. Other states are upping their exemption amounts this year too. Maine’s exemption doubles to $2 million this year (as part of Republican Gov. Paul LePage’s budget). Rhode Island’s exemption goes up to $910,725 this year, up from $859,350 in 2 012 as it’s indexed for inflation.

Connecticut is the only state going in the other direction recently. In 2011, Connecticut lowered the amount it exempts from its tax from $3.5 million to $2 million per estate, retroactive to Jan. 1, 2011. And Illinois is the most recent state to implement an estate tax—it resurrected an estate tax in 2011 with a $2 million exemption—now $4 million as of Jan. 1, 2013.

The next state to watch out for is North Carolina. Newly elected Rep. Governor Pat McCrory made abolishing the state estate tax one of his campaign promises: “North Carolina is now the only state in the Southeast with the death tax. This tax unfairly punishes those who would inherit their loved one’s possessions or business, forcing some families to sell off a small business or family farm just to pay the tax. As governor, [I] will fight to eliminate the death tax for North Carolinians.”

Could more states add stand-alone estate taxes? A technical provision of the federal estate tax law includes a deduction for state tax paid—instead of the pre-2001 state death tax credit, which allowed states to share in the estate tax revenue the feds collected. For states that were hoping for a return to that revenue sharing, it’s possible that they will consider adding stand-alone taxes, according to James Walschlager, a research analyst at tax publisher CCH, a Wolters Kluwer business.

In the meantime, go to the hyper linked article if you want to check out the interactive map showing state estate and inheritance taxes for 2013. Hover over each state to see the dollar amount exempt from taxes and the top rate.

Delaware County Sheriffs Lose Power

Delaware leads nationwide move to strip county sheriffs of power. This headline is very troubling as it alludes to a national, liberal movement to strip County Sheriffs of their law enforcement powers when County Sheriffs are elected by the people - as opposed to the appointed positions of municipal Police Chiefs. Thanks to Fellowship of Minds blog in bringing this to light.

To be sure there are many elected Sheriffs who are mostly politicians rather than law enforcement professionals, but look at Congress........Are our legislators anymore qualified to be our representatives? Some of this continuing assault on the Constitution and over 235 years of American tradition is due to the fact that Republicans win an overwhelming amount of counties in national elections so anything the Democrats can do to minimize the power of the County and the State helps their cause of a one party, socialist nation.  Remember all those car dealers who lost their dealerships during Obama's Auto Industry bailout?  Those were from conservative counties.

“If the sheriffs lose their arrest ability then Delaware will be a de facto police state.” -Delaware Sussex County Sheriff Jeff Christopher.

Ever wary of tyranny, America’s Founding Fathers took pains to design a political system with many mechanisms to check and balance government power. Those mechanisms include:

~ Dividing government into three co-equal branches (separation of powers);

~ A Constitution that specifies the People as the source of government power, as well as defines and delimits that power;

~ Amendments to the Constitution spelling out the People’s rights and liberties (Bill of Rights) — rights that are by birth (natural rights), instead of conferred by man;

~ Federalism: dividing, decentralizing, and diffusing government power among central (national government in Washington, D.C.) and regional units (the state governments).

The county sheriff plays an important role in American federalism.

According to Wikipedia, the U.S. sheriff is a county official and is typically the top law enforcement officer of a county. Historically, the sheriff was also commander of the militia in that county. Distinctive to law enforcement in the United States, sheriffs are usually elected. Of the 50 U.S. states, 48 have sheriffs. The two that do not are Alaska (which has no counties), and Connecticut (which has no county governments and has state marshals instead of sheriffs).

Most sheriff’s offices have a law enforcement role, and their basic function dates back to the origins of the title in feudal England. Although the authority of the sheriff varies from state to state, a sheriff or his deputies (in all states except Delaware, where the sheriff’s defined role is going through arbitration) has the power to make arrests within his or her own jurisdiction. Many sheriff’s offices also perform other functions such as traffic control and enforcement, accident investigations, and maintenance and transportation of prisoners.

In fact, the office of sheriff is older than the United States, predating the official founding of the U.S.A. by more than a century. As an example, Delaware’s first sheriff took office in 1669 — 107 years before the Declaration of Independence!

In their role as their counties’ chief law enforcement officer, sheriffs answer only to the U. S. Constitution, not to Washington, D.C. That is why liberty-loving Americans, fearful of the growing power of the federal government, look to the sheriffs as a check. Indeed, on the matter of the Obama regime’s gun control and gun ban, more and more county sheriffs are saying “no.”

It should come as no surprise then that the forces of tyranny mean to curtail the powers of the county sheriff, if not abolish the institution altogether. In that nefarious effort, the State of Delaware is leading the way.

In April 2012, Pat Shannan of American Free Press first alerted us to the machinations of Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden, son of VPOS Joe Biden.

Well, the rotten apple doesn't fall far from the tree, now does it?"

Although Delaware’s State Constitution stipulates that the office of the sheriff is a constitutionally created position and sheriffs “shall be conservators of the peace within the counties . . . in which they reside,” Biden sent out mandates to commissioners informing them that their sheriffs no longer have arrest powers. In an opinion released February 24, 2012, State Solicitor L.W. Lewis said that neither the state nor the common law grants arrest powers to the county sheriffs.

The move to neuter Delaware’s county sheriffs actually began earlier, before Beau Biden became the state’s attorney general. Sussex County Sheriff Jeff Christopher told American Free Press that as far back as 2000, he had noticed a reduction in funding and the chipping away of powers of the office of sheriff. Now, “my deputies and I have been relieved of all arrest powers and can’t even make a traffic stop. Delaware has only three counties. . . The other two sheriffs . . . will not stand up with me”.

As reported by Jack Minor for WND, Democrats in Delaware’s state legislature then sought to legalize Biden’s move with HB 290, a bill to redefine the role of sheriffs: “‘Police officer’ as used in this code shall not include sheriffs and sheriff deputies,” and it “is the intent of the General Assembly to specifically state the sheriffs and their deputies do not have any arrest authority.”

HB 290 redefined the role of sheriffs to where they can serve papers and process administrative work but have no hand in actual law enforcement. Supporters of the legislation said law enforcement authority belongs in the hands of the state police and city police who, unlike the sheriff, are not elected.

Although HB 290 died a quick death when Rep. Danny Short, a Republican who had sponsored the bill, tabled the bill after he realized its true purpose, Democrats introduced a replacement bill.

On May 3, 2012, House Majority Leader Pete Schwartzkopf, a Democrat, introduced HB 325, which is virtually identical to HB 290, in an apparent attempt to get around Short’s tabling of his bill. As described on the State of Delaware’s website:

“This bill makes the Delaware law clear that the county sheriffs and their deputies do not have arrest authority. Historically the sheriffs and deputies have not exercised arrest authority and the Attorney General’s office has given an opinion that the sheriff’s “power to arrest is no greater than that shared by any citizen.”

Sheriff Christopher said he suspects that Schwartzkopf has been one of the key figures behind the entire legislative process to strip the sheriff’s office of their constitutional power: “He wants to abolish the office of sheriff in Delaware. While he issued a statement saying he isn’t interested in getting rid of the sheriff the truth is he wants to neuter us so the office is under his authority rather than the people who elected us.”

Christopher said if the sheriffs lose their arrest ability then Delaware will be a de facto police state.

On May 10, 2012, Delaware’s House of Representatives passed HB 325 by an overwhelming 36-2 majority. On June 14, 2012, the state Senate passed HB 325 by a 12-3 majority.

On June 19, 2012, Governor Jack A Markell, a Democrat, signed HB 325 into law.

Sen. Heidi Heitkamp: The Defiant Democrat

We need more self thinkers on both sides of the Congressional aisle in Washington, D.C. This article on Senator Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.), calling her the "Defiant Democrat" by Jonathan Karl, Richard Coolidge, Jordyn Phelps and Sherisse Pham for Power Players highlights on of these politicans who can think for themselves.

Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., defied the odds in November when she won the closest senate race in the country, and now that she's arrived in Washington, she's defiant as ever. But now, instead of defying the pollsters, she's defying the Democratic caucus by taking divergent opinions on issues central to the President Obama's second term agenda, ranging from gun control to the environment.

Heitkamp, who says growing the economy is her top priority, is concerned that the president is changing his focus to issues like climate change and gun control.

"I think, you know the one thing that has gotten lost by everyone is one of the best ways that we can perform here is by getting people back to work, making sure that this economic recovery, slow as it is, gets amped up and moves forward," Heitkamp tells Politics Confidential. "It's one of the reasons why I've been such a big proponent of the Keystone Pipeline. There's a shovel ready, private sector jobs program, good paying jobs."

On the topic of gun control, Heitkamp does not hesitate when asked if she'll support an assault weapons ban; her answer is a definitive no.

"There's literally hundreds of thousands of guns already out there," says Heitkamp. "This isn't a solution to the problem, that's my first thing. And I think if you read the case, the Second Amendment case, you got some serious Second Amendment challenges in all of this, and my personal perspective is that you are ignoring what could actually work to prevent this from happening because you are following an agenda that you already had before this ever happened, instead of taking a look at this circumstance, these situations and how do we prevent this violence."

Heitkamp says mental health needs to be part of the conversation in finding solutions to gun violence.

“It's good early prevention, it's good early detection of people who could possibly be doing these things, and then getting intervention,” says Heitkamp. “Take a look at what happened in Aurora, Colorado, when they called the mother, what did the mother say? ‘Oh my son could never do this’, no she said ‘You have the right person, I'm sorry'. Now there's a message.”

Heitkamp, who has already faced criticism from environmental groups, may also soon be targeted by an outside group built from the remains of the president's campaign and led by the president's 2012 campaign manager Jim Messina. The new group plans to put pressure on Republicans and Democrats who don't go along with the president's agenda.

"I would tell you as you talk about Jim Messina, the president lost North Dakota by almost 22 percentage points and I was still elected the United States senator and I was elected because I promised people I was going to be their voice not the voice for a political party, not the voice for a president who happens to be in the same political party that I am but I am the voice for the people of North Dakota," Heitkamp says. "I'll make my decisions based on what I believe is in the best interest of the people of North Dakota, the people of this country. And if in six years people don't agree that I made the right choices, I'll find something else to do."