In the other Washington, there's always talk of scrapping the federal tax code. It's no mystery why. The Internal Revenue Code runs to 7.5 million words and occupies, with regulations, one and one-half feet of shelf space. But complexity is not the worst fault of taxdom.

The biggest and least-discussed problem is this: We tax the wrong things. Mostly, we tax things we want more of, such as paychecks and enterprise, not things we want less of, such as pollution and resource depletion. Naturally, we get less money and more messes. Doing the opposite would yield double dividends: cleaner air and flusher bank accounts. Tax Shift is a blueprint for a revolt that would get taxes off our backs and onto our side.

Download or order the book to the right sidebar.

Here are a few links to key fact sheets from Tax Shift.

• Tax Shift - Excerpt: An excerpt from Sightline's book about using taxes to get what more of what we want.
• Green Taxes: How to use Cascadia's tax system to improve the region's long-term well-being.
• Use Fuel Taxes Wisely: Using gas taxes to fuel alternative transportation.

Alan Thein Durning is executive director of Sightline. Click here for a full bio. Yoram Bauman holds a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Washington.