[IMC-Boston-Editorial] Media advisory-new estate tax report details super-rich families bankrolling repeal effort

[taxpressroom]

NOTE: ALL INFORMATION IN THIS ADVISORY IS EMBARGOED UNTIL 11 a.m. EDT APRIL
25

MEDIA ADVISORY FROM PUBLIC CITIZEN AND UNITED FOR A FAIR ECONOMY

Contact: Angela Bradbery, Public Citizen, 202-588-7741
  Robert Yule, Public Citizen, 202-588-7703
  Christina Kasica, United for a Fair Economy,
          617-423-2148, ext. 119

     NEW REPORT TO DETAIL HOW SUPER-RICH FAMILIES ARE
       BANKROLLING EFFORT TO REPEAL THE ESTATE TAX

WHAT: Press conference with telephone call-in to unveil a report on the
multimillion-dollar lobbying effort by a handful of super-wealthy American
families to repeal the federal estate tax. These 18 families - which include
the family that owns a 40 percent stake in Wal-Mart and the makers of M&M's,
Gallo wine and Campbell's soup - have quietly assembled a
half-billion-dollar lobbying coalition and have financed ads aimed at
manipulating the public into believing that the estate tax is a scourge of
small businesses and family farmers. In fact, the estate tax will affect
only about one-fourth of one-percent of all estates in 2006. Members of
these families, meanwhile, stand to reap more than $70 billion in savings if
their bid succeeds. Such a victory would cost the U.S. treasury about a
trillion dollars over the first decade.

WHY: The fight to repeal the estate tax is heating up again. After a
postponement in September because of Hurricane Katrina, when estate tax
repeal was considered unseemly, pro-repeal interests led by Senate Majority
Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) plan to bring a repeal vote to the Senate floor
as early as the week of May 8.

WHEN: 11 a.m. EDT, Tuesday, April 25

WHERE: Stewart R. Mott House, 122 Maryland Ave. NE, Washington, D.C.

WHO:  JOAN CLAYBROOK, president, Public Citizen
          TAYLOR LINCOLN, research director, Public Citizen'sCongress Watch
division
   LEE FARRIS, senior organizer for estate tax policy,   United for a Fair
Economy
   ELIZABETH LETZLER, investment manager and member of  Responsible Wealth,
a UFE project. She and her family will be  subject to the estate tax.
  STEPHANIE LETZLER, Elizabeth's daughter and Responsible  Wealth member, a
junior at Baldwin Senior High School on Long  Island
  BILL GATES, SR., co-author of "Wealth and Our Commonwealth: Why America
Should Tax Accumulated Fortunes," will provide an audio statement

CALL-IN:  1-800-377-8846, passcode 36707396#
                                   ###
Public Citizen (www.citizen.org) is a national, nonprofit consumer advocacy
organization based in Washington, D.C. United for a Fair Economy
(www.faireconomy.org) is a national, non-partisan, nonprofit organization
that spotlights the growing economic divide in the United States.