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The Tax Policy Center Receives $5 Million Grant to Enhance Research and Public Education

Roberton Williams named the first Sol Price Fellow

Document date: November 29, 2012
Released online: November 29, 2012

The Price Family Charitable Fund has awarded the Urban Institute a seven-year, $5 million grant to support the Tax Policy Center. The Center, a joint project of the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution, will use the grant to expand its independent, objective research on taxes and equity and to enhance its sharing of timely, reliable information with policymakers, journalists, advocates, educators, and citizens.


Contact: Matthew Johnson, (202) 261-5723, [email protected].

WASHINGTON, D.C., November 29, 2012 -- The Price Family Charitable Fund has awarded the Urban Institute a seven-year, $5 million grant to support the Tax Policy Center. The Center, a joint project of the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution, will use the grant to expand its independent, objective research on taxes and equity and to enhance its sharing of timely, reliable information with policymakers, journalists, advocates, educators, and citizens.

"Tax policy matters to everyone," said the Urban Institute’s Donald Marron, director of the Center. "With tax reform now at the top of the policy agenda, it is essential that lawmakers and citizens understand the potential impacts on families and the fiscal outlook. This generous grant from the Price Family Charitable Fund will enable the Tax Policy Center to strengthen our work providing vital information to these policy discussions."

Founded in 2002, the Tax Policy Center is well known for its timely, accessible, and nonpartisan analyses of tax policy issues. Prominent policy analysts from across the political spectrum, media outlets across the nation, and leading researchers rely on the Center for facts, evidence, and clear explanations about complex policy issues. The Center will use this new funding to analyze tax policy options put forth by lawmakers, develop additional alternatives, and share findings through many outlets, including direct contact with the media, interactive features, videos, blog posts, and social media interaction.

The gift honors the legacy of the late Sol Price, founder of Price Club and an Urban Institute trustee from 1994 to 2001, and his lifelong interest in social and economic policy. In recognition of that interest, the Tax Policy Center will name Roberton Williams as the first Sol Price Fellow. One of the Center's most prolific and visible scholars, Williams researches how the tax system affects the distribution of income in American society and is known for his ability to communicate complex tax issues.

"Tax policy decisions over the next few years will have enormous effects on the country's future," Williams said. "Informed decisions during that critical time could strengthen the economy, promote fairness, and bring our fiscal imbalance under control. Uninformed decisions could set both the economy and struggling families further back. The Tax Policy Center will continue to do what we do best: provide impartial, fact-based analysis of tax issues to decisionmakers, the media, other policy analysts, and ordinary citizens who care about good policy."

Williams is currently a senior fellow at the Urban Institute where he plays a primary role in the Tax Policy Center's research and communications efforts.

Sol's son, Robert Price, is chairman of the Price Family Charitable Fund and was an Urban Institute trustee from 2001 to 2006.

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The Urban Institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan policy research and educational organization that examines the social, economic, and governance challenges facing the nation. It provides information, analyses, and perspectives to public and private decisionmakers to help them address these problems and strives to deepen citizens' understanding of the issues and tradeoffs that policymakers face.



Topics/Tags: | Economy/Taxes


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