James A. Richardson was Alumni professor of economics and director of the Public Administration Institute at LSU (1970-2011 emeritus). He received his B.S. at St. Mary’s University of Texas (1966) and his M.A. (1970) and PhD (1971) in economics at the University of Michigan. He served on the Louisiana Revenue Estimating Conference (1987-2019), a four-member panel of elected officials and one independent, professional member, that gave him an implicit veto since the group’s official revenue estimates used by the state budget required a unanimous vote. Additionally, each year he co-authored the ‘Louisiana Economic Outlook’ (since 1985) and a validation report on the revenue estimates in the annual budget of the City of Baton Rouge/Parish of East Baton Rouge. He served as a director of the Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana and as a trustee of the Council for a Better Louisiana. He co-edited the Handbook on Taxation (1999) and was the editor of Louisiana’s Fiscal Alternatives (1988) which was the culmination of one of his state tax reform task forces.