Are cuts to the state's estate tax coming?

Annapolis attorney Colleen Sinclair Prosser handles scores of estates every year, and more than half of them involve clients grumbling over Maryland's death tax.

"What I say to people is: 'In order to avoid the tax, you have to be (worth) under $1 million. Are you really comfortable giving away your assets until you're under $1 million?'" she said. "Most people aren't."

But in this election year, state political leaders might be willing to make dying cheaper.

Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. has set aside $14 million in his budget proposal to eliminate the estate tax, following the federal government's lead, and the House and...