Joint Tax Policy Center

About this grant

Tax policy continues to have a central place on the national agenda and, given long-term deficit projections, is likely to stay there for the foreseeable future. Moreover, the nation’s social safety net increasingly is provided in the form of tax subsidies, such as the earned income tax credit, rather than traditional public assistance programs. This grant will provide ongoing support to the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution’s Joint Tax Policy Center. Using its own tax model and other resources, the center produces timely analyses of current tax proposals and longer-term analyses of systemic tax and related spending issues and communicates these results to the public and policymakers in a timely and innovative manner. In the long run, the center’s goal is to help shape the terms of the debate in which tax policy is considered. Mott funds will be directed toward studying the migration of federal income security and other social policy from spending programs to the tax code and the implications of such shifts for low-income families.