The Tax Fairness Debate

WASHINGTON, D.C., December 2, 2002—How taxes should be distributed among the public has been a source of debate in the United States for more than 50 years. Questions of horizontal equity (the equal taxation of equals) and vertical equity (addressing social inequality through taxation) are also central to many contemporary debates surrounding economic and social policy. A new Urban Institute Press book, Tax Justice: The Ongoing Debate, edited by Joseph J. Thorndike and Dennis J. Ventry, Jr., provides scholars and policymakers alike with fresh insights into the important issue of tax fairness. Contributors assess recent reform proposals, scrutinize measures of inequality, demystify the flat tax, examine the role of property taxes in local finance, address equity concerns, evaluate tax justice in the states, and provide case studies, as well as an overview and historical context.

Editors Thorndike and Ventry, respectively director and associate director of the Tax History Project at Tax Analysts (http://taxhistory.tax.org), bring together in one book the perspectives of nine leading experts on taxation, economics, public policy, and law—Richard A. Musgrave, of the University of California, Santa Cruz; Ventry, who is also the Lawrence Lederman/Milbank Tweed Fellow in Law and Business at the New York University School of Law; W. Elliot Brownlee, professor emeritus of the University of California, Santa Barbara; Carolyn C. Jones, of the University of Connecticut School of Law; Daniel Shaviro, of the New York University Law School; Barbara H. Fried, of Stanford Law School; David Brunori, of George Washington University; Joan M. Youngman, of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy; and C. Eugene Steuerle, of the Urban Institute. The collection of insightful essays should be of interest to policymakers across a broad spectrum of concerns.

Tax Justice: The Ongoing Debate, edited by Joseph J. Thorndike and Dennis J. Ventry, Jr. is available from the Urban Institute Press (6" x 9", 296 pages, ISBN 0-87766-707-1, $29.50, paperback). Order online at www.uipress.org or call (202) 261-5687 or toll-free 1-877-847-7377.

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