SALT LAKE CITY — The mailer has likely hit your mailbox, you've started seeing things on websites and social media apps you visit and a new ad will soon appear on TV and streaming services, asking you to either support Amendment B or reject it.
Amendment B asks voters whether the Utah Constitution should be changed to raise the threshold of passage if a citizen ballot initiative seeks to raise taxes. Right now, an initiative can pass with a simple majority. Under Amendment B, it would require 60% voter approval to pass.
FOX 13 News reported on plans for the amendment to go on the November ballot back in May. The Utah State Legislature authorized it to go on the ballot in the 2024 legislative session.
The last time a citizen initiative passed that led to a tax increase was in 2018, when Utahns approved Medicaid expansion under what was known as Proposition 3 with 53% of the vote (in the same election, voters also legalized medical cannabis and enacted independent redistricting).
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Americans for Prosperity paid for a mailer to voters across the state, urging support for Amendment B calling the issue a "tax monster."
"Everything right now, as we know, it's costing more. Gas costs more, housing costs more, groceries cost more and what we don't need is a huge tax increase," said Heather Andrews, the director for Americans for Prosperity in Utah. "Amendment B prevents a tax increase. Right now it only needs 50% + one to become permanent. That means like a bare majority can add to that tax burden, but when someone tries to raise taxes through initiative? They would need 60% of voters to agree, not just barely one half."
Andrews argues that it should be a higher barrier if a tax increase is put on Utahns across the state. In addition to the mailers, AFP Utah will be launching digital ads to encourage support for Amendment B.
"A 60% threshold, we feel like, protects individuals from ballot initiatives funded by out of state groups trying to impose their priorities on Utah," Andrews said.
Better Boundaries — the group that promoted Proposition 4 in 2018 that led to independent redistricting — launched a TV ad on Friday urging voters to reject Amendment B.
"Amendment B is a power grab by politicians," the ad declares.
Better Boundaries Executive Director Elizabeth Rasmussen said they want to call attention to the broader issue and urge Utahns to vote it down.
"Amendment B is something that would shift a fundamental constitutional right that Utahns have, that power, to the legislature," she said. "It makes it significantly harder for certain initiatives to pass."
Rasmussen argues that citizen ballot initiatives let Utahns hold government accountable when lawmakers fail to act and they're elected by a simple majority of 50% + one. She said it is the legislature once again trying to thwart citizen initiatives.
"It’s hard to see this in a silo. I mean, it is a pattern," Rasmussen said. "We had the legislature upset when the Supreme Court said we have a right to ballot initiatives. And we saw it with Amendment D in 2024 when they tried to get more power. So this is just a continuation of that same story."
A recent public opinion poll by Noble Predictive Insights puts Amendment B at a 50-50 chance of passing a number of people still undecided.
