A Brief History of Tax Reform in American Government

As president of West Liberty University in Wheeling, West Virginia, from 2007 until 2015, Robin Capehart presided over one of the oldest and most prestigious schools in the region. Today, he serves as a senior fellow with the Public Policy Foundation of West Virginia. In this position, Robin Capehart also uses his extensive experience as a government advisor on tax reform to conduct research and author papers on issues of importance to the economic and social well-being of the state and the nation.

Tax reform in the United States has a lengthy and complex history. For almost a century after its founding, the country funded its operations largely through tariffs, only establishing a limited income tax during the Lincoln administration. Just seven years after the Civil War concluded, Congress rescinded that tax.

Thinking on the issue changed in 1913, when legislation permitted the imposition of a new federal income tax. Tax rates burgeoned during World War I, with the very top rate hovering in the 90 percent range until John F. Kennedy pushed through a significant tax cut. Since then, presidents have initiated major tax cuts about once in a generation.

Major successes in tax reform include a report by William Simon, treasury secretary under President Gerald Ford. The Department of the Treasury’s 1977 Blueprints for Basic Tax Reform had long-lasting policy effects.

The Reagan administration achieved a high point in tax reform in the 1980s, when it not only slashed taxes, but also anchored reform in a thoroughgoing simplification and consolidation of the tax code.

School Choice Champions See Opportunities in West Virginia

As the president of West Liberty University in West Virginia for close to a decade, Robin Capehart directed the administration of one of the state’s oldest institutions of higher education. Today, he serves as a senior resident scholar at the Public Policy Foundation of West Virginia. An accomplished scholar and attorney in the field of taxation and tax reform, Robin Capehart has also served as a consultant to state government on that subject.

In addition to his work as the head of West Liberty University, Mr. Capehart maintains a strong interest in education policy in general. He has authored several papers on that topic, published in recent years in Public Policy Quarterly. In particular, he favors broadening of school choice, which was among the pioneering standards put forth by President George H. W. Bush’s administration at the 1989 Education Summit.

Proponents of school choice emphasize the importance of respecting the rights of individual families to determine the best type of school for their own children. Charter schools, magnet schools, voucher funding, and homeschooling are among the possible means of increasing school choice available to communities.

Charter schools are not currently approved in West Virginia, yet proponents believe that their cause is gaining ground. Two members of the statewide school board recently resigned, offering the governor the opportunity to reorganize educational infrastructure. In addition, elected officials and the public alike have expressed a lack of confidence in current educational bureaucracy.