Subject: submission of proposed ideas Comment: Dear Panelists. To ensure that my thoughts reach you, I am submitting them both via email attached and by postal service. Attached is both my cover letter and an eight page essay. I hope that you will find them intreesting and challenging. Sincerely, Bill Batt PO Box 4112, Patroon Station Albany, New York 12204-0112 v: 518-462-5068; fax: 518-462-3921 hwbatt@yahoo.com "The fox knows many things--the hedgehog one big one." Archilochus (c.650 B.C.) H. William Batt, Ph.D. 680 N. Pearl St. Albany, NY 12204-1729 April 24, 2005 The President’s Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform 1440 New York Ave., NW, Suite 2100 Washington, DC 20220 Dear Advisory Panel: Although I am also emailing an electronic version of the attached essay separately, it is appropriate that I rely on the failsafe US Postal Service for this printed version. Everything I have said in that essay is fairly self-explanatory, but perhaps it would be well that I should say something about myself. I am a former university professor of political science, who left teaching to join the New York State Legislative Tax Study Commission in 1982, where I worked for a decade before retiring in 1992. Since that time I have continued to write, to do research on my own, and to serve on non-profit boards reflecting commitment to the reforms I subscribe to. Two such organizations are the Center for the Study of Economics, based in Philadelphia, and the Robert Schalkenbach Foundation, which has its office in New York City. Both subscribe to the social philosophy first outlined by Henry George and both have substantial material on their websites, some of it my own writing. You can find the sites at www.urbantools.net and www.schalkenbach.org. Should you wish to explore further some of the ideas I have outlined, or otherwise have any questions, I would naturally only be too delighted to help. I am by nature a social reformer, ever since being one of the earlier Peace Corps Volunteers, and my activism has continued on various themes since that time. I urge you to explore revenue designs beyond the conventional frame of thinking; you should know that the Georgist philosophy cuts totally across conventional party lines – from William Buckley and Steve Moore on the Right to Michael Kinsley and Molly Ivins on the Left. No doubt you are aware of some of the classic figures on the world stage that have also endorsed Georgist ideas. Very sincerely, H. William Batt, Ph.D. Encl: Painless Taxation |