Don't Mess With Taxes

Photo by Mick Haupt on Unsplash

The 2024 general election is over. Finally. Now we sort through the results to try to determine how what we did on Nov. 5 will affect us.

The election of Donald J. Trump to a second term, along with Republican control of the Senate and likely the House, will likely simplify a lot of federal tax questions in 2025, the final year of many individual Internal Revenue Code provisions in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.

But as noted back on Oct. 26, tax questions, not just candidates, also were on ballots.

That pre-election preview pointed out that many tax ballot questions were related to levies on property, with many designed to provide relief to veterans and public servants like firefighters and police officers. There also were a variety of sales tax initiatives.

Three votes, however, two stood out to me. One was approved by voters. The other two failed.

“No” to tax questions in the northwest: The two losing questions that caught my eye were in the Pacific Northwest.

Oregon voters rejected citizen-initiated Measure 118, Corporate Tax Revenue Rebate for Residents. It proposed adding a 3 percent gross receipts tax on large corporations, with the proceeds distributed to state residents as a universal basic income-style program. Beaver State voters apparently agreed with one pre-election assessment of the proposal as a “hot mess,” and handily defeated it by a 78 percent to 22 percent margin.

In neighboring Washington state, voters decided against Initiative No. 2109, which would have repealed the Evergreen State’s 7 percent capital gains tax. The tax took effect in 2022 and is imposed on the sale by individuals of long-term capital assets exceeding $250,000. Washington voters were adamant about keeping this revenue raiser by a 64 percent to 36 percent margin.

Colorado OKs firearms tax: The winning initiative I found interesting was a western state’s voters acceptance of a firearms-related tax. Colorado voters said yes to levying a 6.5 percent excise tax on the manufacture and sale of firearms and ammunition.

The tax will be paid by firearms dealers, manufacturers, and ammunition vendors, with the collected money going to the Firearms and Ammunition Excise Tax Cash Fund. Money from that fund will go to crime victim services, education programs, and mental and behavioral health programs for children and veterans.

But wait, there was much more. That’s why this weekend, Saturday Shout Outs go to recent coverage of the tax referenda results.

Joe Kristan, a partner at the certified public accounting and business advisory firm Eide Bailly, provides a roundup in his blog post State Tax News & Views: The Voters Speak. He provides highlights of the Colorado, Oregon, and Washington votes, as well as initiatives in California, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, New Jersey, North Dakota, Nevada, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, and Utah.

Helen Brewer, in her overview of the 150 statewide ballot measures for the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), notes that, "Year after year, the most common ballot measure topic is taxes and bond measures. This year was no exception." Detailed information on this year's initiatives can be found in NCSL’s Statewide Ballot Measures Database.

The Government Relations & Public Policy component of ICSC, the global trade association of the International Council of Shopping Centers, also tracked last week’s ballot measure votes. Its findings are in Results of Key Tax-Related State Ballot Measures.

Ballotpedia covered all, not just tax, ballot question results. You can search for the word "tax" to find specifics on 36 questions across the country. Note, this is not by using the web page's search tool at the top of the page, but rather by simultaneously hitting (at least on my laptop) the Control and letter F keys.

Stateside.com has all the 2024 ballot questions. Here, too, a Ctrl+F search of "tax" will get you information on 50 tax-related ballot questions.

Local tax questions, too: There also were some local questions, but you’ll need to check with your area’s election officials or local news outlets to find those results.

Here in Travis County, voters agreed to a nominal property tax rate increase designed to help pay for additional affordable child care opportunities for families in the county.

Homeowners usually rail against property taxes, but the average annual child care cost is about $13,000 in the greater Austin area. That’s about the same as the cost of a year of in-state tuition at the University of Texas Austin. That comparison prompted even us childfree folks to want to help with a few more of our tax dollars.

We’ll see if the government officials will make the new tax money work as we voters and the affected families intended. If not, I see a future election day tax battle in our future.

If Nov. 5 results mean you ended up with some ballot-initiated tax relief, good for you! And if your fellow citizens agreed to a new tax you don’t like, remember that next election.

You also might find these items of interest:

• State Tax Departments
• Tax-related relocations within the United States
• ‘We’re #47!’ That’s Austin's ranking in U.S. city sales tax rates

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