The Tax Foundation, a group that has grown to play a significant role in D.C. tax debates, is hunting for a new president and CEO after more than two decades of leadership under Scott Hodge.
The group, a nonpartisan organization that generally favors lower taxes, announced this week that Hodge was stepping aside after 22 years. It is now searching for a replacement and soliciting resumes. Whoever replaces Hodge follows a president and CEO who has molded the group into one with outsize influence over U.S. tax policy.
The Tax Foundation helped shape the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. After helping to model the tax plans of several contenders in the 2016 presidential election, the Tax Foundation began to get involved with then-House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) and then-House Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady (R-TX) on a blueprint for tax reform that became, through many iterations, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
During an interview with the Washington Examiner, Hodge credited the group with mainstreaming the use of dynamic scoring to assess how tax changes would affect revenues — that is, for instance, counting the added revenues that would come from the economic growth spurred by a tax cut.
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The TCJA was one of the biggest changes to federal taxation in decades, and much of the background modeling responsible for the plan was done by the Tax Foundation.
“That was a signature moment for the Tax Foundation,” Hodge said.
Brady, one of the top architects of the tax cuts, told the Washington Examiner that the Tax Foundation was crucial in locking down the “once-in-a-generation” changes. He said the group was able to give lawmakers a clear-eyed analysis of what their proposals would do.
“We relied on their analysis a lot in developing our tax reform policies and, ultimately, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act,” the Texas congressman said, noting that the group was key in providing not only the direct effects of the plan but also the dynamic effects.
Brady is retiring from Congress this year after first arriving in the House in 1997. He has seen the Tax Foundation’s rise in prominence firsthand and described Hodge’s status in the tax world as “an icon.”
“He’s left a legacy in building an organization that is second to none,” Brady said.
When Hodge first joined as president and CEO of the Tax Foundation in 2000, it had just six employees and was not on the greatest footing financially, with a budget of about $1 million. Now, the group touts more than 30 employees and a budget several times larger.
Hodge described the Tax Foundation as having a “storied history” but equated the state it was in when he came on board as being like an “old house” that had fallen into disrepair over the decades prior to his arrival.
Some of the steps that were taken to grow the organization’s influence included creating a team focused on state tax policy, building a tax modeling program at the federal level, and assembling an international group aimed at global tax policy. He said another key priority was expanding the group’s fundraising and marketing capabilities, especially in the early days of the internet, to build up the Tax Foundation’s infrastructure and resources.
“It took 20 years, but we finally got there,” Hodge said about the goals he laid out more than two decades ago.
The group’s influence extends outside just the halls of Congress. Each year, the Tax Foundation holds a black-tie event that has become known as “tax prom.”
“Tax prom is like the mixture of a family reunion and a holiday party for the tax community, and it’s really kind of the one place that people across the community — Democrats, Republicans, think tank people, political people, corporate, K Street — all of these people can come together and really have a great night, see old friends, and just be one as a community,” Hodge said.
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Hodge attributes much of the Tax Foundation’s gangbusters growth in success and influence in Washington to those he works with. While he is stepping aside as president and CEO, Hodge will stay actively involved with the organization as president emeritus and senior policy adviser.
“I’ve been very fortunate to be surrounded by some exceptionally talented people. And any success that falls on me is really an outcome of their efforts,” Hodge said.
