UPDATE: Results of state and local ballot initiatives have been posted here.
Tomorrow, voters in eighteen states will weigh in on state and local taxA tax is a mandatory payment or charge collected by local, state, and national governments from individuals or businesses to cover the costs of general government services, goods, and activities. policy through ballot initiatives covering everything from taxpayer protection measures in North Dakota and Tennessee to a vote on a proposed margin tax in Nevada (see Liz Malm’s previous coverage), to proposed new taxes on gaming and marijuana.
The National Taxpayers Union has prepared a list of ballot measures dealing with economic issues more broadly. The table below enumerates state, and most local, tax policy initiatives on the ballot around the country tomorrow. We’ll post a list of results on the blog as they come in.
|
Alaska |
State |
Measure 2 – Legalizing marijuana and imposing $50 / ounce excise tax (Fiscal Fact on marijuana taxes available here) |
|
California |
Local |
Various – 134 local tax measures, including soda taxes, local sales taxes, special parcel taxes, and utility taxes, funding everything from schools to a zoo |
|
Colorado |
State |
Amendment 68 – Legalization of limited gaming at horse racetracks, with a $25 million initial assessment per operator plus a tax of 34 percent of adjusted gross proceeds from gaming |
|
Florida |
Local |
Marion County – One mill ad valorem increase for education funding |
|
Georgia |
State |
Amendment A – Prohibiting legislative increases to the maximum state income tax rate above January 2015 levels |
|
Georgia |
State |
Referendum 1 – Extending an ad valorem tax exemption to privately-owned dormitories and parking decks within the University of Georgia system |
|
Georgia |
Local |
Cobb County – Renewing a 1 percent hike in the special purpose local option sales tax |
|
Illinois |
State |
Advisory Question – Non-binding referendum on imposing a 3 percent surtax on income greater than $1 million (“millionaires tax”), to be distributed among school districts (previously covered here) |
|
Illinois |
Local |
Various – 20 local measures imposing new or increased taxes, including retailers’ and service occupation taxes, property taxes, and sales taxes |
|
Kansas |
Local |
Wichita – Imposing 1 percent sales tax for five years, with estimated lifetime revenue of $400 million |
|
Louisiana |
State |
Amendment 3 – Allowing tax collectors’ use of authorized agents, with agents’ fees included with the costs that the collector can recover |
|
Louisiana |
State |
Amendment 6 – Increasing annual millage rate levied for fire and police, to an amount not to exceed ten mills (repealing prior prohibition on increasing rate) |
|
Louisiana |
State |
Amendment 7 – Expanding homestead exemption for totally disabled veterans and their spouses, exempting them from ad valorem taxation up to $150,000 |
|
Louisiana |
State |
Amendment 9 – Excluding totally disabled owners from the requirement to annually certify their AGI to an assessor to receive the Special Assessments Level on residences for property tax purposes (held harmless from property tax increases) |
|
Louisiana |
State |
Amendment 14 – Prohibiting tax incentives, rebate, and abatement legislation from being taken up in even-numbered years (restriction already exists for legislation pertaining to exemptions, exclusions, deductions, or credits) |
|
Massachusetts |
State |
Question 1 – Eliminating annual automatic gas tax indexing to inflation (previously covered here) |
|
Nevada |
State |
Question 2 – Removing 5 percent cap on mining taxes and eliminating other restrictions on mines and minerals taxes |
|
Nevada |
State |
Question 3 – Imposing a 2 percent margin tax on businesses gross revenue, with revenues earmarked for education, and temporarily increasing the 2 percent modified business tax on financial institutions (previously covered here and here) |
|
New Mexico |
Local |
Las Cruces – Imposing 0.25 percent sales tax to fund local transit |
|
New Mexico |
Local |
Bernalillo County – Non-binding advisory question on whether to impose a 0.125 percent sales tax to fund mental and behavioral health services |
|
North Dakota |
State |
Measure 2 – Adopting a transfer tax ban, prohibiting the state or any political subdivision from imposing any mortgage tax or sales and transfer tax |
|
Ohio |
Local |
Various – 1,150 local measures regarding taxes and levies, including 37 increasing, 19 renewing, and 1 replacing local income taxes; 2 increasing and 2 renewing local sales taxes; and 256 increasing, 695 renewing, and 138 replacing other local levies |
|
Oklahoma |
State |
Question 770 – Allowing a disabled veteran to maintain property tax homestead through mid-year relocation |
|
Oregon |
State |
Measure 91– Taxing marijuana at a rate of $35 per ounce on marijuana flowers, $10 per ounce on leaves, and $5 per immature plant (Fiscal Fact on marijuana taxes available here) |
|
Tennessee |
State |
Amendment 3 – Prohibiting the imposition of state or local income taxes, exempting those already in place in 2011 (limited to stock dividend and interest income) |
|
Virginia |
State |
Amendment – Exempting from local property taxation the primary residence of the surviving spouse (not remarried) of a soldier killed in action |
|
Washington |
State |
Advisory Vote No. 8 – Nonbinding vote advising whether the legislature should repeal or maintain the prior elimination of agricultural excise tax preferences for marijuana (not currently classified as an agricultural product) |
|
Washington |
State |
Advisory Vote No. 9 – Nonbinding vote advising whether the legislature should repeal or maintain the leasehold excise tax on certain leasehold interests in tribal property |
|
District of Columbia |
State/Local |
Initiative 71 – Legalizing marijuana, with legislation pending to levy taxes on recreational and medical marijuana (see our legislative testimony here) |
Errata: The original version of this post mistakenly referred to Georgia’s “Referendum 1” dealing with tax exemptions for dormitories and parking decks as “Amendment B.” Oregon Measure 91 was inadvertantly listed as Question 53, which was the petition number, but not the measure number on the ballot. The New Mexico sales taxA sales tax is levied on retail sales of goods and services and, ideally, should apply to all final consumption with few exemptions. Many governments exempt goods like groceries; base broadening, such as including groceries, could keep rates lower. A sales tax should exempt business-to-business transactions which, when taxed, cause tax pyramiding. increase initiative in Bernalillo County is a non-binding advisory question. We have corrected the errors above.
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