Arizona Has a Chance to Lead the Way

This fall, the good citizens of Arizona will be voting on, among other things, a State constitutional amendment that would make it more difficult to increase State taxes.

If passed it would amend the state constitution to require a 60% majority to raise taxes through any future referendum. Current law requires a two-thirds majority to raise taxes through legislation but only a simple majority to do so by plebiscite.

State Representative Tim Dunn (R), who led the effort to get this onto November’s ballot:

When you have something that you can’t change without going back to the voters, I think we should have overwhelming support.

Yewbetcha.

As The Wall Street Journal put it,

A 60% threshold ensures broad consensus before rates can be raised by referendum.

The point is to make it harder for Arizona to join states that raise taxes as a first fiscal resort rather than examine spending.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *