Wednesday, June 9, 2004

David Gamage has published Taxing Political Donations: The Case for Corrective Taxes in Campaign Finance, 113 Yale L.J. 1283 (2004). Here is part of the Conclusion:

It is time for campaign finance scholars to consider incentive-based regulations. Contribution taxes might not be a panacea for all our campaign finance ills, but they have enough potential to merit a thorough debate. This Note is an attempt to spark that debate by presenting the initial case for contribution taxes.

To this end, I have argued that, compared to contribution ceilings, contribution taxes produce more total surplus and less overall diversion. I have also responded to the potential objections that contribution taxes would exacerbate the problems of corruption and inequality, be held unconstitutional, or result in the tax rates being set incorrectly. A great deal more remains to be said on these issues. Nevertheless, I believe my arguments constitute a prima facie case for contribution taxes. I leave it to future papers to expand the parameters of this debate.