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Developments in state and local tax-related ballot measures

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A summary of several state and local tax-related ballot measures that were approved by voters during the November 2024 general election.


Ernst & Young LLP contributors to this article include David Sawyer, Senior Manager and Rebecca Bertothy, Associate Director.

Voters across the United States decided the fate of several statewide, and hundreds of local, tax-related ballot measures during the general election held on November 5, 2024.

Among the rejected measures was an Oregon proposal that would have imposed a new 3% minimum tax on corporations’ Oregon gross sales exceeding $25 million. Washington voters rejected a measure that would have repealed the state’s capital gains tax. In North Dakota and South Dakota, voters did not support measures that would have prohibited taxation of certain property and sales, respectively. 

Not all tax measures failed, however, as voters in Illinois approved an advisory question indicating support for a 3% surtax on individual income exceeding $1 million in order to lower property taxes.

 

At the local level, voters approved San Francisco Measure M, which, in 2025, substantially revises the city’s business taxes, including rate changes and revisions to the calculation of several of the city’s business-related taxes. Voters in both Berkeley, CA and Santa Cruz, CA approved ballot measures to extend and impose new taxes on sugary drinks, respectively. Meanwhile, in Denver, CO residents voted in a measure that imposes an additional temporary sales and use tax to help fund hospital services but voted down a second ballot measure that also would have imposed an additional temporary sales and use tax to expand and preserve affordable housing.

Summary 

During the general election on November 5, 2024, voters throughout the US determined the outcomes of numerous statewide and hundreds of local tax-related ballot initiatives.

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