Congressman Adam Putnam today said passing estate tax legislation is important to the nation’s family farms, but legislation (HR 4154) that passed the House today by a vote of 225-200 contains too many flaws to earn his support.

“Individuals and families own 98 percent of America’s farms and ranches,” said Putnam.  “And these family-run operations produce about 82 percent of U.S. agricultural products.  Estate taxes – or death taxes – threaten these family-owned farms and ranches.  When a farm or ranch passes to surviving family members, they often times are forced to sell off land or equipment in order to pay the taxes and they must engage in complicated and expensive estate planning.  This hurts farming families and it hurts America’s ability to maintain a strong domestic food supply. We do need to enact permanent changes to the law.  But this measure just doesn’t do the job.

“HR 4154 fails in several critical areas,” Putnam said.  “It sets the value of the estate exemption too low for states like Florida; it fails to index for inflation; it sets the top death-tax rate too high; and it sets too many restrictions on the amount of farm land that can be valued for farm use rather than at development value.”

Putnam who supports two other estate-tax measures said, “We need meaningful estate tax reform that sets higher estate exemptions, indexes for inflation, and that removes the limits on the amount of farm land that can be valued for farm use rather than at development value.”

Since 2001, Putnam has represented Florida’s 12th Congressional District, which includes most of Polk County and portions of Hillsborough and Osceola counties.