When it comes to income tax, carbon tax, business tax, wealth tax, sales tax, and gas tax……who should pay and how much?! Join us for a lively debate designed to educate and engage students and offer an opportunity for a hot topic issue to be discussed and debated in a respectful environment.

This event is free and open to the community! 

Panel A: 

Jeff Hamond – Vice President at Van Scoyoc Associates
As a Vice President at VSA, Jeff works directly with private and community foundations, and others in the philanthropic space, to share the good work they are doing in local communities, as well as educate lawmakers about the consequences of adverse policy decisions. Before joining VSA, Jeff spent seven years as Economic Policy Director to Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) and prior to that served in similar roles for Senators Kerry (D-MA) and Bayh (D-IN).  Jeff also had leading roles in policy development at two well-regarded non-profit organizations – Redefining Progress and the Progressive Policy Institute. He earned a Bachelor of Arts at Tufts University, then obtained a Master in Public Policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Dr. John Beck - Professor of Economics at GU
Much of John Beck's teaching, research and community service has focused on public finance, especially state and local government finance. He served on Washington State's Tax Structure Study Committee in 2001-2002. He currently is a member of the board of the Robert Schalkenbach Foundation which promotes the ideas of Henry George, a nineteenth century reformer who advocated free trade and a tax on land values.

Panel B: 

Dan Mitchell - Chairman of the Center for Freedom and Prosperity
Dan Mitchell is Chairman of the Center for Freedom and Prosperity, a pro-market public policy organization he founded in 2000. His major research interests include tax reform, international tax competition, the economic burden of government spending, and other fiscal policy issues. Having also worked at the Heritage Foundation and Cato Institute, he has decades of experience authoring papers, writing editorials, working with the public policy community, and presenting the free-market viewpoint to newspaper, television, and radio media. Dan has spoken to a wide variety of groups in dozens of cities and more than 50 foreign countries. He also serves on the editorial board of the Cayman Financial Review, and holds a Ph.D. in economics from George Mason University. 

Michael Baumgartner - Spokane County Treasurer and former State Senator 
Michael Baumgartner manages nearly $1.3 billion in public investment funds.  From 2011-2019, Baumgartner served as the State Senator for Spokane’s 6^th District.  He was previously the Chair of the Senate Commerce and Labor Committee and the Vice Chair of the Senate Ways & Means Committee.  Baumgartner developed a strong reputation for fiscal responsibility and smarter government, while championing important community projects like the new WSU medical school, full-funding for Spokane’s North-South freeway, EWU’s new science building and improvements to Mt. Spokane.  A strong advocate for Higher Education, Baumgartner spearheaded the largest reduction in the cost of college tuition in American history.   During his time in the Legislature, Baumgartner received numerous awards, including the Washington Policy Center’s highest honor, the Champion of Freedom Award.  Baumgartner has an extensive international background and previously helped coordinate economic and political counterinsurgency operations as a State Department Officer at the US Embassy in Baghdad during the Iraq Surge. He frequently lectures on issues of Counterinsurgency, including in 2017 as a guest faculty member at SciencesPo University in Paris.  He holds degrees from Washington State University (BA Econ ’99) and Harvard University (MPA-ID ’02), where he was also a Teaching Fellow in Economics.

Thank you to our co-sponsor: