By Elissa Silverman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 9, 2006

A key member of Congress proposed yesterday to use the District as a laboratory to experiment with a controversial approach to federal tax policy.

Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), chairman of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on the District, held a hearing to talk about implementing a flat tax on city residents, which would be voluntary. D.C. residents could opt to remain under the current federal tax system.

A flat tax would impose a uniform federal tax rate on income and eliminate many current exemptions. Proponents say it generates economic growth and is a valuable way to reform a tax system that invites special-interest lobbying. Opponents say it benefits wealthy investors.

Brownback did not ask local officials to testify yesterday; he said he planned to hold another hearing. The witnesses included former House majority leader Richard K. Armey (R-Tex.) and analysts from the Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute and the Institute for Research on the Economics of Taxation.

At his weekly news conference, Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) said of the idea, "I'm open to it."

Although she did not attend the hearing, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) said she opposes such a proposal and questioned whether it would hold up to constitutional muster because the District would be taxed differently from the rest of the country.

Yet in a discussion with reporters, Brownback mentioned that Norton supported a version of the flat tax about a decade ago.

Norton called her proposal a progressive flat tax. "That was at a time when residents were pouring out of the District at lethal levels," she said.

Shadow senator Paul Strauss (D), who sat in the audience, said, "They think of us as a state when it comes to federal liabilities."

"When it comes to federal rights," he added, "they think of us as a laboratory rat."

Staff writer Lori Montgomery contributed to this report.