Tag: referendum

GOP State Senator May Be Holding Up Arizona Legislature from Sending Election Integrity Measure to Ballot

Rachel Alexander
Ken Bennett

The Arizona Legislature is considering sending an election integrity measure to the ballot this fall.

HCR 2056 was debated in the Senate Elections Committee last week. The bill would require voters to show photo ID when dropping ballots off. All early ballots dropped off will be tabulated at the voting location where they were submitted. Seven counties already do that. The bill also prohibits election officials from accepting funds from foreign entities to help administer an election.

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Americans for Prosperity – Tennessee Urges Nashville Mayor to Cut City Budget, Protect Residents from Property Tax Hikes Amid $3.1 Billion Transit Plan

Kaitlin Housler
Freddie O'Connell

Americans for Prosperity – Tennessee (AFP-TN) released a statement Thursday in response to Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s proposed $3.1 billion transit referendum that will be presented to Davidson County voters on the November ballot.

AFP-TN State Director Tori Venable, noting how Nashville voters rejected then-Mayor Megan Barry’s $9 billion transit plan six years ago, acknowledged the dramatic cost difference in O’Connell’s plan while also pointing out the half-cent increase in the city’s sales tax that will be used to fund the plan.

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Ben Cunningham Calls Nashville Mayor’s $3.1 Billion Transit Referendum ‘Absurd’

Kaitlin Housler
Freddie O'Connell

Ben Cunningham, founder of the Nashville Tea Party, said not only does Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s transit referendum appear to be illegal under the IMPROVE Act, but the transit plan’s overall vision of commuters suddenly switching over to public transport is “absurd.”

O’Connell unveiled his $3.1 billion transit plan, called “Choose How You Move: An All-Access Pass to Sidewalks, Signals, Service, and Safety,” last week, which would be funded through a half-cent increase in the city’s sales tax.

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Ben Cunningham: Nashville Mayor’s Transit Plan Appears to be Illegal

Kaitlin Housler
Freddie O'Connell

Ben Cunningham, founder of the Nashville Tea Party, said Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s transit plan, which is expected to be on the November ballot, is likely illegal under the IMPROVE Act, which passed the Tennessee General Assembly in 2017.

The 2017 IMPROVE Act, signed by former Governor Bill Haslam, permits local governments to seek a dedicated funding source via surcharge to support mass transportation projects through local referendum.

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Nashville Mayor O’Connell Announces November Transportation Referendum but Offers No Plan Details

Kaitlin Housler
Nashville Transit

Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell officially announced Thursday that there will be a public transit referendum on the November 5 ballot, however, did not reveal any specifics to his awaited transportation plan.

“After getting the green light on both legal and financial aspects of the process, the administration is putting a referendum in front of the voters on November 5,” O’Connell’s office said in a press release.

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Wisconsin Lawmakers Introduce Second Go at Constitutional Amendment to Ban Zuckerbucks in Election Administration

M.D. Kittle

Looking to get around Democrat Governor Tony Evers’ veto pen, Republican lawmakers have introduced the second consideration of a constitutional amendment to bar the use of private funds in election administration.

Passage would send the proposed amendment to referendum, letting voters — not the liberal governor — decide if controversial “Zuckerbucks”-like funding of elections is legal in Wisconsin.

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School Choice in Wisconsin Wins in Day of Breakthrough Education Spending and Revenue Sharing Deals

M.D. Kittle

School choice in Wisconsin would get a huge funding boost, and Milwaukee and Milwaukee County would stave off financial devastation in deals announced Wednesday.

Just when it appeared the Milwaukee portion of a massive state shared revenue plan was on the brink of collapse, the Republican-controlled Legislature reached an agreement with Democrat Governor Tony Evers that will allow pension debt-ridden Milwaukee County and the city to put in place a new sales tax — without having to ask their voters to do so. 

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Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers Threatens to Veto Republicans’ Shared Revenue Plan

M.D. Kittle

Republican leadership is blasting Governor Tony Evers for threatening to kill a bill that would boost state shared revenue and bail out financially troubled Milwaukee. 

The liberal governor, however, isn’t the only critic of the legislation that pours hundreds of millions of dollars of new taxpayer revenue into Badger State towns, villages, cities and counties. 

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Activists in Bradley County Request Government Owned Broadband Network Planned for Cleveland, Tennessee to be Approved by a Referendum

Kaitlin Housler
Broadband

Leaders of four citizen groups representing “thousands of conservatives in Cleveland and Bradley County” have sent a letter to the City of Cleveland and its utility department, Cleveland Utilities, calling for the city’s proposed multi-million dollar broadband internet service plan to be approved by a referendum of the voters.

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Tommy Thompson, Wisconsin’s Longest-Serving Governor, Endorses Work-First Ballot Issue

M.D. Kittle

Tommy Thompson, Wisconsin’s longest-serving governor and welfare reform pioneer, is lending his support for a work-first referendum question on the Badger State’s April 4 election ballot.

The non-bonding referendum asks voters a simple question: “Shall able-bodied, childless adults be required to look for work in order to receive taxpayer-funded benefits?”

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Arizona State Officials Call Upon Katie Hobbs to Reject Universal ESA Law Referendum

Neil Jones

Arizona officials are now calling out Secretary of State Katie Hobbs to expedite the signature counting process for the referendum against Arizona’s Universal Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) law, including the bill’s sponsor, State Rep. Ben Toma (R-Maricopa).

“We expect that your office will have formally rejected the referendum petition as legally insufficient no later than the opening of business on Friday morning,” Toma said in a letter to Hobbs. “If the full and effective implementation of H.B. 2853 continues to be obstructed, the Arizona House of Representatives will exercise its constitutional oversight function in order to find facts and ultimately to determine what, if any, legislation may be required to prohibit, deter, and penalize such dishonesty in future campaigns and administrations, and to ensure that the statutory procedures for filing and processing ballot measure petitions cannot be manipulated to enable such misconduct.”

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Five City of Hendersonville Aldermen Halt Residents’ Vote on Term Limits for Aldermen and Mayor

Laura Baigert

The vote of five members of the City of Hendersonville Board of Mayor and Alderman (BOMA) halted a ballot initiative that would allow residents to vote on term limits for the city alderman and mayor.

The vote on Ordinance 2202-09 relative to term limits for members of the board of mayor and alderman, which was up for a second reading on Tuesday, June 28 and required a two-thirds majority to pass, failed for receiving just eight of the necessary nine positive votes.

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Detroit, Michigan Voters to Decide on Left-Wing ‘Proposal P’ on Tuesday

Bradley Vasoli

When Detroit, Michigan voters head to the polls for next Tuesday’s primary, they will decide on a referendum concerning a major proposed revision of the city charter which would institute numerous left-wing programs and reforms.

The ballot item, known as “Proposal P,” provides for the creation of a new “Task Force on Reparations and African American Justice,” an “Office of Economic Justice and Consumer Empowerment,” a “Department of Environmental Justice and Sustainability” and an “Office of Immigrant Affairs,” among other new government offices. 

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Lawsuit Filed Against Referendums That Attempt to Reverse Arizona’s Historic Tax Cuts

Rachel Alexander

The Arizona Free Enterprise Club filed a lawsuit recently against Invest in Arizona over the organization’s attempt to get three referendums on the Arizona ballot that would reverse Arizona’s recently passed tax cuts. The lawsuit contends that since the tax cuts “provide for, and directly relate to, the generation of revenues that are remitted to the general fund and appropriated to various agencies, departments and instrumentalities of the state government,” they cannot be the subject of a referendum and are unconstitutional.

AFEC President Scot Mussi, who is one of the plaintiffs, said, “All three bills directly provide for the support and maintenance of the state, were key aspects of the state’s budget, and therefore are not referable by Invest in Arizona.”

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Nashville Taxpayer Protection Act: Attorney Jim Roberts Talks Metro Legal’s Creation of Suppression and Fear as Referendum Seeks Ballot

Julie Carr

Friday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed Nashville Taxpayer Protection Act Attorney Jim Roberts to the newsmakers line to give updates on where he stands in the fight against Metro Legal to get the proper number or petitions solidified to move forward with his referendum.

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Metro Nashville’s Claim of Election Commission ‘Non-Ministerial Role’ to Keep Property Tax Referendum Off Ballot Contradicted by 2004 Tennessee Supreme Court Decision: No Legal Authority to Question Constitutionality

Chris Butler

The  2004 Tennessee Supreme Court decision in City of Memphis v. Shelby County Election Commission that found the “Commission exceeded its authority by refusing to place Referendum Ordinance No. 5072 on the November 2, 2004, ballot based upon the State Election Coordinator’s opinion that the Ordinance is unconstitutional,” may blow a major hole in Metro Nashville Legal Director Bob Cooper’s argument made to to the Davidson County Election Commission at its September 25 meeting that “the commission’s role here is not purely ministerial,” and that a 2004 Tennessee Supreme Court decision “said that the commission can consider the form of a referendum petition and suggested that it could review the petition’s facial or procedural legality.”

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Initiative to Roll Back Nashville’s 34 Percent Property Tax Hike Receives Election Commission Verification, Heads Back to Clerk’s Office

Jason M. Reynolds

Nashvillians now likely will have input on the city’s 34 to 37 percent property tax hike, a conservative activist said in reaction to the verification of a ballot initiative.

The Davidson County Election Commission on Monday verified the referendum effort for the Nashville Taxpayer Protection Act, WSMV said. That could limit the property tax increase to 2 percent. The effort now goes to the Metro Clerk’s Office and potentially to the Dec. 5 ballot.

Tori Venable, state director of Americans for Prosperity-Tennessee (AFP-TN), lauded the initiative’s progress in a statement. 

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Diane Black: Passing the $9 Billion Nashville Transit Plan Will Hurt The Tennessee Economy

Admin
Diane Black discusses the transit plan

In a weekend interview with WSMV, Rep. Diane Black (R-TN-06), a candidate for the GOP nomination for governor, said that in her opinion, passage of the $9 billion transit plan up for a public vote on Tuesday would hurt the Tennessee economy. “It would cause the cost of living to go up substantially, and you know who this hurts? And do you know who this hurts? The low-income folks,” Black said. Today, the Volunteer State boasts some of the lowest tax burdens in the nation, which many economists point to as the reason  why people from across the country are choosing to relocate here. But Black warns all that could change should the transit proposal pass. “Why would we want to do something that would cause the taxes to be the number one highest tax of any city in the entire country?” she asked rhetorically. A decade ago, voters in California passed a similar measure, with the goal to better connect the northern and southern cities in the state. However, delays, poor planning, and budget overruns have increased costs to taxpayers seven-fold. “California has their transit system – it started out ten years ago at $10 billion,” Black noted. “It’s now over $70,…

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Early Voting Opens In Crucial Nashville Transit Referendum

Jason M. Reynolds

Early voting has begun in Nashville-Davidson County, and groups seeking an alternative to the $9 billion light rail transit plan are urging voters to head to the polls early. Election Day — and the transit referendum —are May 1, but early voting began April 10 and will run through April 26. Poll locations for early voting are posted on the NoTax4Tracks website. “We need as many people as possible to vote against this costly and fiscally irresponsible transit plan,” the group says in a newsletter. “Otherwise, Davidson County will have the highest sales tax of any major city and households will pay an extra $43,000 for a transit plan that does NOT solve the traffic congestion problem and does NOT serve the whole county. “The other side is making false claims so it is essential we fight back to provide residents with all the facts. Reaching out and communicating with potential voters is the most important thing we can do during this critical time.” NoTax4Tracks also reports that the neighborhoods with the worst traffic will see little relief from light rail. Better Transit For Nashville posted what it calls the Top 100 reasons to vote against the light rail plan.…

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Nashville Metro Council Prepares Transparent Transit Plan Referendum For May 1

Jason M. Reynolds

Nashville Metro Council voted Tuesday to place both the $5.35 billion and $9 billion transit plan price tags on the May 1 referendum. An amendment showing the price range was approved on a 34-2-2 vote. The vote was part of the third and final reading of the referendum language. Debate during the council meeting likened the transportation plan to buying a car. When buying a car, one looks at the dealer’s price as the purchase price; expenses like tires and fuel are operating costs, council member Jeremy Elrod said. Council member Bob Mendes said “We’re not buying a car.” To buy an operating system, one pays not only the upfront costs but also debt and has to consider the debt terms and payback period. One must consider the bond debt payment. He said the $8.95 billion figure was good enough for the state comptroller. Jeff Eller, campaign spokesman for NoTax4Tracks, which has expressed concerns about the transit plan, said, “We believe the Council did the right thing by letting voters decide on the full cost of the $9-billion light rail plan. They will now have the opportunity to understand this plan will result in the highest sales tax in the country…

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Nashville Metro Council Plays Shell Game With Transit Costs

Jason M. Reynolds

The Metro Council voted Tuesday to not disclose the true cost of Mayor Megan Barry’s light rail transit plan to voters on the May 1 referendum. Metro Councilmembers John Cooper and Tanaka Vercher had asked that the May ballot language include the full $9-billion-dollar costs. They proposed the amendment that Metro Council voted on Tuesday night during the plan’s second reading. The amendment is available here. The council voted 21-14 not to accept the amendment, according to a spokesman for NoTax4Tracks, a PAC that opposes the transit plan. There will be one final reading, but it is not immediately clear if amendments will be allowed, the spokesman says. That vote could come in as early as two weeks. Once the amendment failed, the council voted on the Barry administration’s favored language for the referendum, citing a price tag of just over $5.3 billion. The council voted 30-6, with three not voting, to create the ballot language, according to Barry’s Twitter feed. NoTax4Tracks PAC on Tuesday had announced their support for the proposed amendment’s effort to let voters know the full cost of the city’s light rail transit plan. “The city does not want voters to know the full costs of the light rail…

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