By TIM ALEXANDER
Illinois Correspondent

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Illinois’ multigenerational farm families and many others facing steep estate inheritance taxes are lauding the introduction of Illinois House Bill 1107, which would prohibit the Illinois Attorney General from collecting a “death tax” from heirs of state citizens who pass away in 2011.

State Rep. Sidney H. Mathias (R-District 53) first read the bill in February before the legislation was assigned to both the state’s House Subcommittee on Sales and Other Taxes and the House Revenue and Finance Committee.
Mathias, of Buffalo Grove, explained the state’s estate tax was resurrected following last year’s hiatus as a byproduct of legislation which raised Illinois’ personal and corporate income tax rates earlier in 2011.

“The legislation reinstated the Illinois estate tax with a $2 million exemption, rather than (following) the federal government’s exemption of the first $5 million,” he said.

While the bill was scheduled for consideration by the committees Feb. 24, Mathias opted not to call it at that time. “I did not call it because I need to work to get a little more momentum and support for the bill. Even though the bill was assigned to a committee it is still going to take a lot of work to get the majority to act on the bill,” he said.

At a time when the Illinois legislature is working to trim millions from the state budget and explore new and existing sources for revenue, Mathias’ bill seems to go against the current political climate. A simple overload of legislation on the docket of the Illinois General Assembly, however, may do more to derail the bill than anything else.

“(So far) I haven’t received much support for the bill nor heard many negative comments,” said Mathias, “but so many bills have been filed that legislators are having trouble digesting them all. Last week I think we filed another 2,000 bills, and over 3,000 total bills have been filed since the beginning of the year.”
In 2010, the Illinois Attorney General’s Office collected $236,347,699.33 in estate tax revenue from the year 2009 and before. Mathias indicated his office is actively seeking people willing to testify as to the harm of the estate tax to small business owners, farmers and others from across the state.

During the Illinois Farm Bureau’s annual legislative day in Springfield Feb. 24, Mathias sought approval for the bill from the Farm Bureau officials and members with whom he spoke.

“I told them they need to get the message out to other farmers to tell their state representatives how harmful (the estate tax) is on them and their families,” he said. “The farm is often the main asset of farmers, and if we have an Illinois estate tax it may result in the sale of the farm when the owner dies.”
Mathias also filed a companion bill to HB1107, which calls for raising the Illinois estate tax exemption to $5 million “to basically meet the same exemption as the federal government’s,” he said. If he can’t manage to convince legislators to rescind the state estate tax entirely, he  hopes the Illinois General Assembly will vote to fall in line with the federal exemption. Rep. Robert W. Pritchard (R-District 70) has signed on as the chief cosponsor of HB1107.