Just a couple of days after the midterm elections, the Institute of Technology and Policy (ITP) came out with many of the tax-related ballot measures decided on election day. With much of the election focused on the individual races, these ballot measures are of great consequence, and the ITP deserves credit for giving them the attention they deserve.

Some of the highlights of those which had been decided by the release of his blog post on November 5:

• “California voters weighed in on more than a dozen ballot measures, passing Proposition 3 which will make the state’s current top income tax rates permanent and secure vital ongoing funding for education and other priorities. The state appears likely to reject Proposition 40 which would have created a one-time wealth tax on billionaires, while passing Proposition 42 which will ban new wealth tax efforts going forward if not reversed.” 

• “Voters in Florida approved a ballot measure to increase the state’s non-school property tax homestead exemption to $250,000 by 2028, at which point it would also be indexed to inflation.”

• “North Carolina voters approved two constitutional amendments that cap the state’s income tax and impose limits on local governments’ autonomy to increase property taxes.”

• “Wyoming voters rejected Initiative 1, which would have created a 50 percent property tax exemption on primary residences. The proposal did not align with existing exemptions and was widely opposed including by past governors of both parties and groups representing hospitals and teachers.”

• “Arizona passed Proposition 141 and Proposition 316. Prop 141 amends the Arizona Constitution to prevent state and local governments from implementing taxes based on the number of miles a person drives, limiting the state’s ability to fund things like road maintenance in the future.”

• “Cook County, Illinois, voters approved a non-binding referendum to advise the state to enact a 3 percent income tax surcharge on income over a million dollars. The referendum also approves earmarking 50 percent of the revenue for property tax relief.

• “Iowa voters approved Constitutional Amendment 1, which will require a two-thirds supermajority in both state legislative chambers to increase the state’s personal or corporate income tax rate.”

• “Kansas state and local governments came to agreement on a $3 billion stadium project for the Kansas City Chiefs. Sixty percent of the funding for the project will come from state and local sales tax and revenue bonds.”

• “Louisiana voters approved a handful of constitutional amendments on property taxes, including expanding property tax exemptions for spouses of deceased, disabled veterans and giving local government the ability to increase homestead exemptions for seniors.”

• “Missouri voters have roundly rejected Constitutional Amendment 7, which would have created but not funded a permanent sovereign wealth fund with the goal of eliminating all taxation. The measure did not have a funding source or specified spending priorities.

  
  

• “Oklahoma voters declined to pass Question 847, which would have reduced the annual growth limit on property tax valuations. Had it passed, the measure would have cut funding for local government services without replacing any of the revenue.

• “Utah voters rejected Amendment B, which would have increased the voter threshold for any citizen ballot measure that expanded, changed, or created new taxes.”

• “Voters in Tennessee overwhelmingly voted to ban a statewide property tax. The measure will not affect current local property taxes, and the state has not had its own property tax since 1949.”

• “Votes are still being counted in Washington state at the time of writing, but the state’s popular new millionaires’ tax appears likely to survive the attempt to repeal it at the ballot, with close to 60 percent of voters opting to keep the tax on the state’s richest households and the projected $3.5 billion it is expected to raise each year for schools, healthcare, and other shared priorities.” 

• “Voters in Wisconsin voted to narrow the governor’s expansive veto powers by prohibiting use of the partial veto to create or increase a tax.”

(Note from Barrett and Greene: We’ve written and published several articles on the tax issues that were to appear on the ballot on Tuesday, November 3. For more background on what they entailed, see “The Fiscal Pain of Tax Relief”, and “Midterm Tax measures”, both published on this website in October.) 

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