August 29,2018 | Triadvocates
Arizona Supreme Court Ruling: Invest in Ed Initiative Knocked Off November Ballot
Just hours ago, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled against the Invest in Education income-tax measure, effectively knocking it off the November ballot. According to the ruling, the 100-word description of the proposed initiative, recently titled Proposition 207, "did not accurately represent the increased tax burden on the affected classes of taxpayers” because it misrepresented the actual tax rate increase on the state’s largest taxpayers and failed to include any mention of a potential change to inflation-adjusted tax brackets.
Framed as a way to fully restore the more than $1 billion in cuts to education funding since the recession, the Invest in Education ballot measure would have raised income-tax rates by 3.46 percentage points to 8 percent on individuals who earn more than $250,000 or households that earn more than $500,000, and would have raised individual rates by 4.46 percentage points to 9 percent for individuals who earn more than $500,000 and households that earn more than $1 million.
Spearheaded by the Arizona Chamber of Commerce, a group of plaintiffs sought legal action to remove the initiative from the ballot after organizers of the movement submitted enough signatures to qualify for voter consideration this November.