The Gazette and Colorado Politics invite you to personally join in the debate over tax reform and tax cuts. We’re assembling a panel of experts for our Community Conversation series to talk through the pros and cons of the Trump administration proposal to rewrite our tax code and its impact on Colorado.

We’ll gather at 5:30 p.m. Friday at Studio Bee at the Pikes Peak Center. The event, cosponsored by the AARP, is free and open to the public, and the conversation will be live-streamed on Facebook.

We’ll tackle the tough questions, such as whether we should eliminate the 401(k) and mortgage deductions to raise the amount of income that is taxed so we can lower the rate.

We’ll try to answer your questions on how changes will affect individuals and businesses directly, and we’ll look ahead to possible steps forward in the battle over tax reform and how the current proposal might evolve.

Panelists are T.R. Reid, author of a new book, “A Fine Mess: A Global Quest for a Simpler, Fairer, and More Efficient Tax System”; Tatiana Bailey, Ph.D., director of the UCCS Economic Forum within the College of Business; Paul Prentice, Ph.D., an economics fellow of the Centennial Institute at Colorado Christian University and a senior fellow at the Independence Institute’s Fiscal Policy Center; and Marvin Strait, a certified public accountant in Colorado Springs and former chairman of the board of the Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce.

The forum will be moderated by Gazette video editor Eric Singer.

We’ll start with five-minute opening statements from each panelist, take questions for 40 minutes and then end with two-minute closing statements. We also plan to solicit questions via social media before the event and bring them to the discussion.

Please join us.