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The Federal Income Tax and State Law
Bittker, Boris
Bittker, Boris
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Abstract
I count it a privilege to join in the Southwestern Law Journal's tribute to Dean Galvin as he drops the reins ofadministration. It is gratifying to know that he will continue as an active teacher and legal scholar-roles that he successfully pursued during his long tenure as dean of the Southern Methodist University School of Law, despite the centrifugal forces that inevitably pull educational administrators away from the classroom and library. My own association with Dean Galvin goes back many years, almost to a time whereof the memory of man runneth not to the contrary, namely, the end of World War II. Our closest encounters, however, occurred in two debates in the late 1960's. The first was conducted in the pages ofthe Harvard Law Review (volumes 80 and 81), where, with Joseph A. Pechman and Richard A. Musgrave, we debated the merits of a comprehensive income tax base. Such was the force of our rhetoric that each ofus succeeded, at least in his own opinion, in defending his original territory. In one of his sallies, Dean Galvin suggested, indeed expressed the hope, that the existing tax structure would sink into "a dank, miasmic, myxomycetous sump" so that we could make a new start; but with admirable realism, he also predicted that we would have to make do with the quagmire for the foreseeable future. In our other debate, recorded in book form as The Income Tax: How Progressive Should It Be?, we again grappled with slippery imponderables in an argument that furthered my own education and that, I hope, others found useful. In offering the remarks below to this testimonial in Galvin's honor, I look forward once again to his comments, criticisms, and corrections.