The centrist and liberal plans eventually would end the Bush tax rates, restore estate taxes, and limit or eliminate tax breaks for corporations and individuals — so-called tax expenditures — that cost more than $1 trillion in revenues annually.
From the settlement's earliest days, the land abutting the shoreline has been in the public domain, and walkers can pass through the lawns of some of the area's famous century-old mansions and restored estates.
On Friday, two inns in the area — the Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge and Blantyre, a restored estate in Lenox where rates for a suite can run as high as $2,000 a night — both said they had a guest named Anne Sinclair.
This season's winter programming includes Molière's comedy "The Learned Ladies," which opens Feb. 3. Sadly, Wharton's restored estate isn't open in winter, except to cross-country skiers wise to its well-tended grounds.
Among the things that contribute to the quality of life in Roxbury are a multifaceted, year-round arts center; a restored estate park; two art galleries; a ski center; and a golf course.
If the sunset clause in the new tax law has you in a panic that death delayed one day into 2011 could cost heirs millions in restored estate taxes, relax.
Designed by Marie Russak Hotchener and built in the early 1920s, the restored estate samples from a variety of architectural styles, including tastes of Moorish, Mission Revival, Gothic and even Art Nouveau design.
The revenue from this restored estate tax should be earmarked for purposes that mitigate the extreme inequality in the distribution of the fruits of growth in today's economy.
At The Mount, Wharton's restored estate (2 Plunkett St., Lenox; [413] 551-5111, edithwharton.org), there's something special nearly every day in July and August, including lectures, family theater, gardening programs, early-evening concerts, ghost tours and dramatized readings of Wharton's works.
As the enormous sums of wealth accumulated since 1980 now begin to enter estate taxation, it is critical that policymakers restore the estate tax to a robust rate and sensible exemption level.
