Which States Require a Supermajority Vote to Raise Taxes?

Mandy Rafool
National Conference of State Legislatures
25 March 1998

See also Majority and Supermajority Requirements and Other Constitutional Restrictions on Legislative Tax Powers, a table.

The recent debate in Washington, D.C., over requiring a three-fifths vote of Congress in order to raise taxes, has rekindled interest in state supermajority requirements and how they affect state finances.

Fourteen states now use supermajority requirements to restrict legislative fiscal power. Supermajority requirements are not tax limitations in the traditional sense, although they can serve to limit the growth of state revenues if they prevent tax increases. Supermajority requirements dictate either a two-thirds, three-fourths or three-fifths majority vote in both chambers to pass tax increases or new taxes.

The Arkansas Legislature was the first in 1934, to require tax increases to be approved by an extraordinary majority. Arkansas courts have interpreted the supermajority requirement to apply only to taxes on the books when it was adopted, so sales taxes and alcohol excise taxes are exempt from the requirement. Legislatures in Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida followed with supermajority requirements. The Louisiana and Mississippi measures apply to all tax increases. The Florida measure applies only to bills that increase the corporate income tax above a constitutional cap of 5 percent.

Citizens took up the cause in the late 1970s in California and South Dakota, passing initiatives to require supermajority votes. Delaware's General Assembly refereed the issue to the ballot itself and voters passed it in 1980.

Another wave of supermajority requirement initiatives surfaced in the early 1990s as citizens in at least six states voted on the issue. Measures in Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota and Washington have passed. All (except Oregon and South Dakota) of the these recent supermajority requirements are the result of citizen initiatives.

The effectiveness of supermajority requirements in controlling government growth depends upon the make-up of the legislature and on the state's tax system. In states with one predominant party, the majority party traditionally has enough votes to approve tax increases. In other states, the requirement can be very restrictive. Staff from supermajority states report that diligent consensus building by legislative leaders is necessary to gain approval of most tax increases. States with tax systems that fail to provide revenue growth commensurate with economic growth may have trouble coping with such requirements.

The spread of supermajority requirements is probably limited to the states, mostly in the West, with the voter initiative process. They are just one of a number of "tax revolt" measures that may be favored by anti-tax or anti-government groups, although the recent debate in Congress over supermajority requirements will likely spur a renewed interest in the states.

Figure: States with Supermajority Requirements to Raise Taxes

States requiring supermajority votes to raise taxes

Source: NCSL survey of state fiscal officers.

Posted March 1998, reviewed March 2006.
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