If we may be permitted a small bit of self-indulgence, TaxVox would like to wish itself a happy second birthday.
We first went live on October 16, 2007. Len Burman, whose idea this was, said in his initial post:
We started TaxVox to communicate directly and quickly with an online community interested in fiscal policy issues. We’ll be commenting on federal, state, and local legislation; tax administration; and new research on individual and business taxation. We want your comments too. We don’t want TaxVox to be only the voice of the Tax Policy Center. So please help us make it a forum for the entire tax and budget policy community.
TaxVox has succeeded beyond our wildest dreams. This month, we are on track to receive more than 250,000 page views—ten times what we got in our first full month. We’ve published nearly 400 articles and received hundreds more comments.
Journalists, editorial writers, and fellow bloggers have tapped our posts for story ideas. Lawmakers have used us to make the case for--or against-- various pieces of legislation. And TaxVox has been a window into the wealth of data generated by TPC.
As Len hoped, TaxVox has also been a wonderful forum for a healthy, passionate, but respectful exchange of views on tax and fiscal policy. The blog is at its best when we debate the pros and cons of tax proposals.
No celebration is complete without a few thank-yous. So, thanks to all the TPC staff for their ideas, support, and their own blog postings, and to Dana Campbell and her team of computer gurus who keep TaxVox up and running. Thanks to Len Burman, who is probably now freezing his butt off in Syracuse. Thanks to our regular commenters, who keep us honest and provide lots of great ideas of their own, and to those who lurk. Finally, my boundless appreciation to politicians everywhere. Without your ideas—sometimes useful, sometimes zany—we’d probably go dark.
Finally, it is probably worth noting that my first post was about taxing carried interest—an issue that was red-hot two years ago yet remains unresolved to this day.
Now, as a two-year-old, TaxVox intends to celebrate by throwing cake and screaming for attention.
