John Mikesell holds a BA from Wabash College and both an MA and PhD in economics from the University of Illinois, where he specialized in public finance and taxation. He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He is professor of public and environmental affairs at Indiana University and director of the Master of Public Affairs program for the School of Public and Environmental Affairs. Professor Mikesell is editor-in-chief of PUBLIC BUDGETING AND FINANCE, the journal published by the American Association for Budget and Program Analysis and the Association for Budgeting and Financial Management, and his column on sales taxation is a regular feature of STATE TAX NOTES. Dr. Mikesell has served as chief… fiscal economist with the USAID Barents Group/KPMG Peat Marwick fiscal reform project with the government of Ukraine, and as Moscow-based director for assistance in intergovernmental fiscal relations with the USAID Georgia State University Consortium Russian fiscal reform project. He has worked as consultant on World Bank missions to the Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, and Turkmenistan, and has worked on fiscal studies for several state governments in the U.S. Mikesell is coauthor with John F. Due of SALES TAXATION, STATE AND LOCAL STRUCTURE AND ADMINISTRATION (Urban Institute Press). And his research on government finance and taxation has appeared in several journals, including NATIONAL TAX JOURNAL, PUBLIC BUDGETING AND FINANCE, and PUBLIC FINANCE QUARTERLY. He has received the Wildavsky Award for outstanding scholarly achievement by the Association for Budgeting and Financial Management.