Utah Carbon Tax Initiative (2024)
| Utah Carbon Tax Initiative | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Election date November 5, 2024 | |
| Topic Taxes and Environment | |
| Status Not on the ballot | |
| Type State statute | Origin Citizens |
The Utah Carbon Tax Initiative was not on the ballot in Utah as an initiated state statute on November 5, 2024.
This initiative would establish a carbon tax, eliminate the state sales tax on grocery store food, and expand the matched federal Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) from 15% to 20%.[1]
Text of measure
The full text of the initiative can be found here.
Support
Clean the Darn Air sponsored the initiative.
Arguments
Clean the Darn Air said, "Our proposal puts $100m a year into local air quality programs and $50m a year into rural economies, eliminates the state sales tax on grocery store food and expands the state’s Earned Income Tax Credit match for low-income working families, and pays for it all with a modest carbon tax on the fossil fuels that are the main source of both local air pollution and global climate change."[2]
Opposition
If you are aware of any opponents or opposing arguments that should be included here, please send an email with a link to editor@ballotpedia.org.
Background
Carbon Tax Initiative, 2020
- See also: Utah Carbon Tax Initiative (2020)
In April 2019, Clean the Darn Air filed an initiative targeting the 2020 ballot that would have established a carbon tax and eliminated the state sales tax on food and residential and commercial fuel. On November 22, 2019, sponsors announced that instead of continuing to target the 2020 ballot, they would try to get a similar measure on the ballot in 2022 or 2024. Clean the Darn Air wrote, "We have not been able to get a major donation or other game-changing development, so although we are still gathering some signatures in 'experimental mode', we are doing so mostly with an eye on future years because the odds of getting on the 2020 ballot are very long and are getting longer by the day."[3]
Path to the ballot
The state process
In Utah, the number of signatures required to qualify an initiated state statute for the ballot is equal to 8 percent of the number of active voters as of January 1 of the year following the last regular general election. Petition circulation must be distributed so that signature equal to 8 percent of the active voters are collected from each of at least 26 of the 29 Utah State Senate districts. State law establishes a final signature deadline for direct initiated state statutes as either 316 days after the initial initiative application was filed or February 15 of the election year, whichever is earlier.[4] Moreover, signature petition sheet packets for direct initiatives must be submitted to county clerks on a rolling basis no more than 30 days after the first signature is added to the packet.
The requirements to get an initiated state statute certified for the 2024 ballot:
- Signatures: 134,298 valid signatures were required.
- Deadline: The deadline to submit signatures was February 15, 2024. An initiative also has a specific deadline 316 days following the initial application.
Each signature is verified by the county clerks in the county where the signature was collected. After verification, the petition forms are delivered to the lieutenant governor, who counts the total number of certified signatures and declares the petition as either sufficient or insufficient.
Details about this initiative
- Clean the Darn Air filed the initiative on January 10, 2023.[5]
- The signature gathering period was set to be February 17, 2023, through November 22, 2023.[6]
- As of June 12, 2023, the campaign reported collecting 10,000 valid signatures.[7]
- On July 31, 2023, the Clean the Darn Air campaign announced they had collected 20,000 signatures, but would not gather enough signatures to qualify for the ballot, writing, "Hello clean-air-and-climate friends: At our zoom meeting last week we agreed that we are not going to make the ballot this year, so we are shifting our focus to learning what we can from this year's experience in preparation for trying again down the road. Next steps will depend on what happens with the state legislature, with the state Supreme Court's upcoming decision about the anti-gerrymandering lawsuit, and with the state constitutional amendment that is heading for the ballot next year. ... Sorry to not have better news for this year, but we gave it our best shot!"[8]
See also
External links
- Utah 2024 Initiative Filings
- Initiative application and full text
- Utah Office of the Legislative Fiscal Analyst's fiscal impact statement
Footnotes
- ↑ Utah Lieutenant Governor, "Clean The Air Carbon Tax Act Initiative," accessed February 2, 2023
- ↑ Clean the Darn Air, "Policy introduction," accessed February 2, 2023
- ↑ Clean the Darn Air, "Lessons learned and looking ahead," accessed November 26, 2019
- ↑ If the 15th is a holiday, the deadline is the following business day
- ↑ Utah Lieutenant Governor, "Initiatives and Referenda," accessed February 2, 2023
- ↑ Clean the Darn Air, "Home," accessed February 24, 2023
- ↑ Email communication sent by CleanTheDarnAir on June 12, 2023
- ↑ Clean the Darn Air, "Clean The Darn Air: Shift of focus," accessed July 31, 2023
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