May 3, 2001 | Read Time: 1 minute
The Council for Advancement and Support of Education is urging Congress to “reject outright repeal” of the estate tax in favor of increasing the dollar amount of estates exempted from the tax.
In a letter to key senators, Vance T. Peterson, president of CASE, which represents college and private-school fund raisers, said that such a “cautious, measured approach” to estate-tax changes was essential.
“This will have the effect of protecting small farms and businesses while avoiding serious consequences for important charitable entities like our educational institutions, both public and private, that depend on private gift support to ensure educational quality,” said Mr. Peterson.
He added: “Such an approach would also steer clear of unknown and potentially harmful consequences associated with a radical change in a public policy that, for most of the last century, has had an undeniably salutary effect on developing and maintaining some of our finest eleemosynary institutions.”
Mr. Peterson’s letter and the council’s position on the issue are available on the organization’s Web site, http://www.case.org.
