Home 
Local Aid and Finance Income tax repeal proposal nears 2008 ballot
Three of the 13 citizen petitions filed last summer to change state law and the Constitution, including a proposal to eliminate the state income tax, have received enough signatures to take the next step toward appearing on the November 2008 state election ballot.
In December, the secretary of state’s office notified the proponents of petitions regarding the income tax, dog racing, and marijuana possession that they had gathered more than the 66,593 valid signatures needed in order to send their proposals to the Legislature for a public hearing later this year.
A petition that would repeal Chapter 40B, the law that exempts certain housing projects from local zoning bylaws, collected just 31,308 signatures, less than half of what it needed to move forward this year.
Petitions that would have repealed the municipal motor vehicle excise tax and impose a stricter property tax cap were not submitted by proponents for signature certification. Altogether, these questions would have reduced municipal revenues by almost $1 billion per year during the first two years of implementation, beginning in fiscal 2009, and by more in later years.
The question to reduce certain penalties for marijuana possession gathered the most certified signatures (80,373), followed by the question to prohibit dog racing where betting is involved (79,055), and the income tax question (76,085).
The tax question, filed by former Libertarian Party candidate for governor Carla Howell, would eliminate the state’s personal income tax, which raises about $12 billion per year, or nearly 60 percent of state tax revenues. The same proposal was defeated in the November 2002 state election, receiving 45 percent of the votes cast on the question. Recent polls indicate that voters are about evenly split on the tax question.
Proponents of several other questions approved by the attorney general last August for signature collection did not submit signatures to the secretary of state for certification. These include proposed constitutional amendments to lower the voting age from 18 to 16, to allow citizen-proposed changes to the state’s constitution to go directly to voters, and to enable state participation in a “commonwealth of democratic nations” to “insure international tranquility and safeguard human rights.”
The process for placing a question on the statewide election ballot requires a review of the question by the attorney general to make sure it doesn’t violate the ballot question provisions in the Massachusetts Constitution and in law, the collection by proponents of nearly 67,000 voter signatures, and an opportunity for the Legislature to enact the proposed law (which would take place this spring for November ballot proposals). If the Legislature fails to enact the proposal, the proponents must collect an additional 11,099 signatures by early July 2008 in order to place the question on the ballot in November.
A full description of the initiative petition process and the text of the proposed ballot questions can be found on the attorney general’s Web site.
Local Aid and Finance Income tax repeal proposal nears 2008 ballot
Income tax repeal proposal nears 2008 ballot
Three of the 13 citizen petitions filed last summer to change state law and the Constitution, including a proposal to eliminate the state income tax, have received enough signatures to take the next step toward appearing on the November 2008 state election ballot.
In December, the secretary of state’s office notified the proponents of petitions regarding the income tax, dog racing, and marijuana possession that they had gathered more than the 66,593 valid signatures needed in order to send their proposals to the Legislature for a public hearing later this year.
A petition that would repeal Chapter 40B, the law that exempts certain housing projects from local zoning bylaws, collected just 31,308 signatures, less than half of what it needed to move forward this year.
Petitions that would have repealed the municipal motor vehicle excise tax and impose a stricter property tax cap were not submitted by proponents for signature certification. Altogether, these questions would have reduced municipal revenues by almost $1 billion per year during the first two years of implementation, beginning in fiscal 2009, and by more in later years.
The question to reduce certain penalties for marijuana possession gathered the most certified signatures (80,373), followed by the question to prohibit dog racing where betting is involved (79,055), and the income tax question (76,085).
The tax question, filed by former Libertarian Party candidate for governor Carla Howell, would eliminate the state’s personal income tax, which raises about $12 billion per year, or nearly 60 percent of state tax revenues. The same proposal was defeated in the November 2002 state election, receiving 45 percent of the votes cast on the question. Recent polls indicate that voters are about evenly split on the tax question.
Proponents of several other questions approved by the attorney general last August for signature collection did not submit signatures to the secretary of state for certification. These include proposed constitutional amendments to lower the voting age from 18 to 16, to allow citizen-proposed changes to the state’s constitution to go directly to voters, and to enable state participation in a “commonwealth of democratic nations” to “insure international tranquility and safeguard human rights.”
The process for placing a question on the statewide election ballot requires a review of the question by the attorney general to make sure it doesn’t violate the ballot question provisions in the Massachusetts Constitution and in law, the collection by proponents of nearly 67,000 voter signatures, and an opportunity for the Legislature to enact the proposed law (which would take place this spring for November ballot proposals). If the Legislature fails to enact the proposal, the proponents must collect an additional 11,099 signatures by early July 2008 in order to place the question on the ballot in November.
A full description of the initiative petition process and the text of the proposed ballot questions can be found on the attorney general’s Web site.
Written by MMA Legislative Director John Robertson
