Thailand RPCV H. William Batt Ph.D. is one of the earliest Peace Corps Volunteers, with subsequent experience as an academic, a business and not-for-profit administrator, a political leader, policy researcher and advisor
H. WILLIAM BATT, Ph.D.
P.O. Box 4112
Patroon Station
Albany, NY 12204 Tel: (h) 518-462-5068
Fax: (h) 518-462-3921
e-mail: HWBatt@yahoo.com
One of the earliest Peace Corps Volunteers, with subsequent experience as an academic, a business and not-for-profit administrator, a political leader, policy researcher and advisor, seeks challenging opportunities in academia or the public or private sector. Noted since 1994 in Marquis Who's Who in the East, 26th edition, and Who's Who in America since 55th edition.
Current Positions:
Executive and Principal Researcher, Central Research Group, Inc.
* Research and consulting on relationships between transportation, tax, and land use policies under contract to state and municipal governments and foundations.
Senior Consulting Associate, Creighton-Manning, Inc., Delmar, NY. Policy Research (transportation and fiscal policy) under contract to governments.
* Conceived the design, the first of its kind anywhere, for a transportation development district using trip-generation and land-value data as the basis for a development fee.
* Assembled the financial framework, as well as the basic conceptual design, for the transportation master plan for Orange County, New York.
Administrative and Business Experience (most recent first):
* President and Executive Director, Central Research Group, Inc. CRG is a non-profit 501(c)(3) research and educational cooperative of scholars established in Ithaca in 1976. Its work is funded through grants and contracts.
* Director, Center for the Study of Economics, a national research and information organization for study of Georgist economic approaches, 1995 to present (Secretary from 1998 and after); Director, Robert Schalkenbach Foundation, 2002 to present; Advisor on Land Value Taxation, Earthrights Institute, 1997 on: www.earthrights.net.
* Staff Political Scientist, Legislative Tax Study Commission, 1984-92. Had special responsibility for design and evaluation of user fees, particularly for transportation and environment. Served as the political scientist in an interdisciplinary team of five professionals. Participated in all phases of Commission Reports, and had prime responsibility for papers on Rainy Day Funds, Highway Taxes and User Charges, Solid Waste End Charges, and Dedicated Revenue Funds. Participated in formulating 1987 State tax reform proposals. Took lead responsibility for generating new study areas for the Commission agenda.
* Assistant Research Director, Legislative Commission on Critical Transportation Choices, State of New York, 1983-84. Had prime responsibility for papers on the need for a Statewide master plan for transportation, the power of State government to control airport noise, the efficacy of a contract for subway cars. Had ancillary responsibility for reports on State responses to drunk driving and the question of seatbelts on school buses.
* Budget Analyst, Department of Transportation, State of New York, 1982-1983. Prepared and monitored the $145 million Highway Maintenance Program Budget.
* Administrative Director and Fellow, Central Research Group, Inc.,1978-1981.
* Vice President and Marketing Director of Interwolf, Inc., 1976-1981. Interwolf was the exclusive American representative for a line of European planetarium and astronomy equipment.
Earlier Academic Interest and Expertise: Organization Theory, Comparative Public Administration, Political and Economic Development, and Asian Studies. Dissertation was "Obligation and Decision in Thai Administration: From Patrimonial to Rational-Legal Bureaucracy," (the relationship between moral reasoning and social structure). Teaching Experience: Public Administration, Comparative Politics, American Politics, 1962-1978:
* Teaching Fellow: Northern Illinois University; SUNY-Albany
* Instructor: Russell Sage College, Siena College
* Assistant Professor: SUNY-Binghamton, U. of Baltimore (list of courses taught available upon request)
* Adjunct Professor (Part Time): Marist College MPA Program, 1994.
* also have taught in many special programs and workshops, as a high school substitute, in Peace Corps-Thailand, 1962-1965, and frequently in Sunday School.
Consulting: Miscellaneous free-lance consulting for both private and public institutions, 1976 to present: reorganization of not-for-profit organization business office (1976); feasibility study for a planetarium in Albany, New York (1982); design of fees for public agencies and local governments (1993-4); analysis of property and school tax data in selected cities in upstate New York testing the feasibility of site-value taxation (1996); formulation of policy options for real property tax reform in New York State in a Monograph under contract to American Association of Retired Persons (1996; copy available upon request). "Feasibility of Site Value Taxation in the State of Minnesota: Olmsted County (Rochester MN) as a Hypothetical Test Case," Performed under contract with the Minnesota Planning Department, June, 1999, incorporated into later agency report entitled "Smart Signals," available at www.mnplan.state.mn.us. Philadelphia City Controller, on the "Tax Structure Analysis Report,"November, 2001 www.philadelphiacontroller.org/tax.htm. "Feasibility of Site Value Taxation in the State of Vermont," for Common Ground, 2002.
Education:
* A.B., Government, U. Massachusetts, 1962, Honors.
* Teacher Certification, University of Massachusetts, 1962.
* M.A., Political Science & Southeast Asian Studies, Northern Illinois University, 1967.
* Inter-University Consortium for Political Research, University of Michigan, Statistical Methods in Social Sciences, Summer, 1967.
* Ph.D., Political Science, School of Public Affairs, SUNY-Albany, 1974. Major concentration: Public Administration; Minor Concentrations: Comparative Politics, American Politics, Political Philosophy.
Professional Writing and Publications (limited to the past twenty years; earlier writing was in another field of interest, no longer relevant):
On issues of Public Finance Not included in above are policy papers prepared for Legislative Commissions. All such policy papers are for the internal use of the New York State Legislature.
* "Infrastructure: Etymology and Import," Journal of Public Issues in Engineering, Jan.,1984.
* "Heavy Vehicle Highway User Charges," Presented at General Conference Session, Federation of Tax Administrators 1989 Motor Fuel Tax Conference, Indianapolis, October, 1989.
* "Truck User Fees and the Level Playing Field: U.S. and Canada Compared," presented at a conference on Expanding International Economic and Social Opportunities through Technology: Canada in the North American Common Market, Skidmore College, October 24-25, 1991.
* "Designing Surface Transportation Finance," a paper presented to the Royal Thai Government Ministry of Finance, Bangkok, Thailand, November, 1991.
* "Dedicated Highway and Consolidated Transportation Funds," presented at the Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board, National Research Council, Washington, D.C., January, 1992.
* "Can the Bicycle Save America," New York Bicycling Coalition News, Oct., 1992.
* "A Proposal to Limit the Mortgage Interest Deduction and Thereby Raise More State Revenue," State Tax Notes, Vol 4, No. 1 (January 4, 1993), pp. 46-50.
* "User Fees: The Nontax Revenue Alternative," State Tax Notes, Vol 4, No. 14 (April 5, 1993), pp. 787-794.
* "A General Theory of Earmarking," State Tax Notes, Vol.4, No. 24 (June 14, 1993), pp. 1420-1437.
* "A Transportation Development District Fee Using a Land-Value Component," Annual Conference, Council of Georgist Organizations, Los Angeles, July, 1993.
* A Framework for Designing a Transportation Development District," Northeast Regional Conference of the American Society for Public Administration, Albany, October, 1993.
* "Does Federal Imposition of Taxes and Fees Preempt State and Local Imposition?" State Tax Notes, Vol. 6, No. 14 (April 4, 1994), p. 897.
* "How the Railroads Got Us on the Wrong Economic Track," The Torch, Winter, 98. Nominated for the Torch International Clubs Paxton Award for the outstanding presentation of the year. Online at www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/5148/batt_railroad_1.html.
* "Taxing to Foster Sustainable Communities," Third Annual Mid-Atlantic Conference on Sustainable Development, Ramapo College, April 18-20, 1997.
* "Motor Vehicle Transportation and Proper Pricing: User Fees, Environmental Fees, and Value Capture," presented at TOES97: The Other Economic Summit, Denver, June 20-22, 1997; Ecological Economics Bulletin, Vol. 3, #1 (First Quarter, 1998). pp. 10-14.
* "Toward a Default Assessed Land Value for American Tax Jurisdictions," Presentation at the Global Institute for Taxation, World Trade Center, October 1-2, 1999.
* "The Merits of Site Value Taxation," Presentation at the Global Institute for Taxation, World Trade Center, October 1-2, 1999.
* "Shifting Taxes to Land in Des Moines, Iowa: A Simulation of its Impact," Presented at the Conference of Georgist Organizations, Des Moines, IA, September, 2000.
* "Value Capture as a Policy Tool in Transportation Economics: An Exploration in Public Finance in the Tradition of Henry George," The American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Vol 60, No. 1 (January, 2001), pp 195-228; reprinted in Laurence S. Moss (ed.), City and Country. Malden MA: Blackwell Publishers, 2001.
* Occasional Columnist, under contract with the Henry George Foundation of America, most recently to write weekly essays in the Amsterdam (New York) Recorder on the merits of site-value taxation, from November 12, 1995 through March 31, 1996.
* "Fallacies of the Slippery Slope Argument," The Torch, Vol.75, No.1, Fall,2001. Online at www.torch.org/fall2001.pdf, p. 9-14.
* "Special Privilege Drains Away Humanity's Common Assets," a review of Silent Theft: The Private Plunder of our Common Wealth, by David Bollier, at www.progress.org/revboll.htm.
* Facilitated the translation into the Thai language and subsequent publication of Henry George's Progress and Poverty, along with a partner book entitled The Unjust Poverty, 2002.
* Review of Liam Murphy and Thomas Nagel's The Myth of Ownership: Taxes and Justice, in State Tax Notes, Vol. 25, No.9 (August 26, 2002), pp. 665-666.
* "Stemming Sprawl: The Fiscal Approach," in Suburban Sprawl: Culture, Ecology and Politics, Hugh Bartling and Matthew Lindstrom (eds.) New York: Rowman and Littlefield, forthcoming, 2003.
* Most Recent online work: "The Nexus of Transportation, Economic Rent, and Land Use," at www.taxpolicy.com/batt/ Summer, 2002.
* Frequent contributor to local publications for op-ed pieces and letters; in the last decade essays on "Efficient Capital District Growth," Albany Times Union, June 9, 1990; "Radical Change Needed in State Budget Process," Troy Daily Record, October 9, 1991; "Can the United States stop losing ground?" in the Capital District Business Review, February 24, 1992; "U.S. Has a Responsibility to Support Democracy in Thailand," Albany Times Union, June 1, 1992; "Practice of Tax Shifting Focus of Extensive Study," Albany Times Union, June 8, 1996; "Pataki Property Tax Reform Should be Scrapped," Schenectady Sunday Gazette, March 3, 1997; "Some tax increases actually induce economic activity," Albany Times Union, December 28, 1997; "Albany's Tax Structure Needs to Be Revamped," Albany Times Union, November, 23, 1998; "'Love Fest' Left Lots to be Desired," Sunday Schenectady Gazette, March 21, 1999; "Tax Land, Not Buildings, to Turn Cities Around," Albany Times Union, June 27, 2002.
Other Community Service Activities (selective and most recent first):
* Director, National Hemlock Society, 1989-1994 (Treasurer, '93-94).
* President and Founder, Hemlock Society of New York, 1987-1998.
* President, Returned Peace Corps Volunteers of Northeastern New York, 1986-1991; and again 1998-2002.
* Vice President, Albany International Center, fall, 1988 to summer, 1990.
* Board Member, AIDS Council of Northeastern New York, 1987-1988.
* Finance and/or Personnel Committees, First Unitarian Society, Fall, 1987-88.
* Secretary, Albany Memorial Society, 1983-1986; President, 1973-1974.
* Chairman, & then Vice Chairman, Town of Ithaca Democrats, 1979, 1980-1981.
* Chairman, Board of Trustees, Unitarian Society of Ithaca, 1977-1981.
* Democratic Candidate, Town of Ithaca Supervisor, 1975, 1977.
* Board Member, Tompkins County Health Planning Council, 1975-1976.
* Peace Corps Volunteer, Thailand, 1962-1965.
* Frequent public advocate for various causes reflective of involvements listed above.
