Utah Income and Sales Tax Increase for Public Education Initiative (2018)
| Utah Income and Sales Tax Increase for Public Education Initiative | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Election date November 6, 2018 | |
| Topic Taxes and Education | |
| Status Not on the ballot | |
| Type State statute | Origin Citizens |
The Utah Income and Sales Tax Increase for Public Education Initiative was not on the ballot in Utah as an initiated state statute on November 6, 2018. The initiative's sponsoring group, Our Schools Now, reached a compromise with the state legislature, however, and withdrew the initiative.
The measure would have increased the state income tax from 5 percent to 5.45 percent on January 1, 2017, and the state sales tax from 4.7 to 5.15 percent on April 1, 2019. Revenue from the tax increases—estimated at about $700 million per year—would have provided additional funding for public education in Utah.[1]
Compromise between the legislature and Our Schools Now
Our Schools Now negotiated a compromise with the state legislature that resulted in the approval of two bills during the 2018 session designed to increase revenue for education.[2]
- House Bill 293, given final approval on March 8, 2018, and signed by the speaker of the House on March 13, 2018, was designed to freeze property tax rates—which otherwise would have been adjusted downward. It also decreased income tax rates to 4.95 percent. The bill provided a net gain for education spending and created the Teacher and Student Success Account.[3]
- House Joint Resolution 20 provided for the submission of a non-binding advisory question to the voters at the November 2018 election asking whether voters supported increasing gas taxes by $0.10 per gallon to fund local roads, which would have, in turn, freed up revenue from the general fund for education. Revenue from the tax was estimated at about $100 million per year. The advisory question was rejected by voters.[4]
- HB 293 and the proposed gas tax—if it had been approved by voters and then by the legislature—would have provided and estimated $375 million in additional education spending per year. Voters rejected the gas tax increase question.
Following the approval of HB 293 and HJR 20, Our Schools Now ceased collecting signatures to put the initiative on the ballot.[5]
Lane Beattie, president and CEO of the Salt Lake Chamber and member of the Our Schools Now steering committee, said, “The Salt Lake Chamber has been an ardent supporter of greater investment in Utah’s education system, modernizing our tax code and ensuring our infrastructure is equipped to handle our robust population growth, this solution addresses all three. Our support of the Our Schools Now initiative has always come with the hope that a legislative solution could be reached. We are thrilled with the efforts of dozens of stakeholders to find a compromise and now urge members of the legislature to support this comprehensive package.”[6]
Utah Governor Gary Herbert signed HJR 20 and HB293 in a ceremonial bill signing on April 16, 2018. Sydnee Dickson, the State Superintendent of Public Instruction said: "This is really up to the voters now. It's been amazing that all these different entities came together to support this initiative on behalf of the schools. So really now it's carrying forward to the general public."[7]
In the 2019 legislative session, the legislature passed Senate Bill 149 on March 8, 2019. The creation of Teacher and Student Success Account was a part of the 2018 compromise with Our Schools Now. Senate Bill 149 created the Teacher and Student Success Program to set up rules for distributing funds from legislation to schools, including upon outcome-based criteria. Details can be read here.[8]
Proposed bill to void the initiative prior to compromise
Earlier in the session, on February 2, 2018, House Bill 299 was introduced by Rep. Mike Schultz to repeal and reenact the sections of state statute governing the state income and sales tax rate. The bill would have taked effect only if the state's income tax or sales tax were increased by 0.45 percentage points or more, which is what this initiative was designed to do. Essentially, the bill would have immediately voided any tax increases imposed by this initiative if it had reached the ballot and had been approved by voters. Schultz said that the education funding desired by Our Schools Now—the backers of this initiative—could be achieved without tax increases. Schultz said that he was willing to work with the group to come to a compromise.[9][10]
Text of measure
Full text
The full text of the initiative is available here.
Support
Our Schools Now! led the campaign in support of the initiative.[11] The co-chairs of the campaign were Scott Anderson (President and CEO of Zions Bank), Ron Jibson (retired Chairman and CEO of Questar), and Gail Miller (owner of Larry H. Miller Group of Companies).
Opposition
Officials
- Rep. Kim Coleman (R-42)[12]
- Rep. Justin Fawson (R-7)[12]
- Rep. Karianne Lisonbee (R-14)[12]
Organizations
Campaign finance
| Total campaign contributions: | |
| Support: | $798,844.38 |
| Opposition: | $0.00 |
As on January 18, 2018, one committee—Our Schools Now—was registered to support this initiative. As of 2017 year-end reports, the committee reported $798,844.38 in total contriubtions—$790,257 in cach donations and $8,587.38 in in-kind services. It had spent $417,666.47, counting in-kind services.[13]
No committee was registered to oppose the initiative as of January 18, 2018.
The top five donors to the support committee behind this initiative provided 73.98 percent of the support ccampaign's funds.[13]
Support
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||
Top donors
| Donor | Cash | In-kind | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Management & Training Corporation | $201,000.00 | $0.00 | $201,000.00 |
| Gail Miller | $200,000.00 | $0.00 | $200,000.00 |
| Utah Education Association | $100,000.00 | $0.00 | $100,000.00 |
| Khosrow Semnani | $50,000.00 | $0.00 | $50,000.00 |
| Moreton & Company | $40,000.00 | $0.00 | $40,000.00 |
Opposition
No committee had registered to oppose this initiative as of January 18, 2018.
Methodology
To read Ballotpedia's methodology for covering ballot measure campaign finance information, click here.
Polls
- See also: Ballotpedia's approach to covering polls
- See also: 2018 ballot measure polls
| Utah Income and Sales Tax Increase for Public Education Initiative (2018) | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Poll | Support | Oppose | Undecided | Margin of error | Sample size | ||||||||||||||
| Dan Jones & Associates 10/10/2017 - 10/13/2017 | 54.0% | 42.0% | 4.0% | +/-3.98 | 605 | ||||||||||||||
| Note: The polls above may not reflect all polls that have been conducted in this race. Those displayed are a random sampling chosen by Ballotpedia staff. If you would like to nominate another poll for inclusion in the table, send an email to editor@ballotpedia.org. | |||||||||||||||||||
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.[14] 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 2018 ballot:
- Signatures: 113,143 valid signatures were required.
- Deadline: The deadline to submit signatures was April 15, 2018. Each initiative also has an initiative-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
The initiative petition was filed with the lieutenant governor on June 6, 2017.[15] Sponsors were required to hold seven public hearings, but ended up holding 14 hearings, on the initiative throughout Utah. After the public hearings and receiving comments from the lieutenant governor, sponsors decided to amend the initiative. The original filing increased both the income tax and sales tax by 0.5 percent but phased them in over three years. The amended filing increased both taxes by 0.45 percent without a phase in. The amended version was filed on July 31, 2017.[1]
As of the year-end filings for 2017, proponents had spent $243,608.88 on the signature petition drive. Of that, $196,520.35 was paid to Gathering Inc., and the remainder went to individual signature gatherers.[13]
As of March 26, 2018, the office of the lieutenant governor reported that 32,083 signatures had been submitted to it from county clerks. Proponents, however, compromised with state legislators. Following the compromise, proponents withdrew the initiative.[16]
See also
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Utah Lieutenant Governor, "Our Schools Now Initiative," accessed June 7, 2017
- ↑ Utah Policy, "Voters would decide on gas tax hike to fund schools under proposed deal between lawmakers and Our Schools Now," March 5, 2018
- ↑ Utah Legislature, "House Bill 293 - Text," accessed March 13, 2018
- ↑ Utah State Legislature, "House Joint Resolution 20," accessed March 8, 2018
- ↑ The Salt Lake Tribune, "Utah Legislature final-day recap: So many proposed laws, not enough time," March 8, 2018
- ↑ Salt Lake Chamber, "Salt Lake Chamber Announces Support for Compromise on Education Funding," March 7, 2018
- ↑ Deseret News, "Herbert signs Our Schools Now compromise legislation," accessed April 17, 2018
- ↑ Utah Legislature, "Senate Bill 149," accessed March 8, 2019
- ↑ Utah Legislature, "House Bill 299," accessed February 9, 2018
- ↑ KUTV, "Utah bill would void education initiative," February 5, 2018
- ↑ Our Schools Now, "Homepage," accessed June 7, 2017
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 Desert News, "Campaign launched against Our Schools Now initiative," October 12, 2017
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 Utah Leiutenant Governor's Office, "Our Schools Now," accessed January 18, 2018
- ↑ If the 15th is a holiday, the deadline is the following business day
- ↑ Utah Lieutenant Governor, "First Proposal of Our Schools Now Initiative," accessed June 7, 2017
- ↑ Fox 13, "Where the signatures are on ballot initiatives in Utah," March 26, 2018
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