By Patrick R. Potyondy
The votes are cast. The local election officials have done their work. The unofficial results are in.
In 2017, states voted on 27 total statewide ballot measures, including one that was held in the summer and four that were decided in October. A total of 22 were voted on yesterday.
Of those 22, it appears that 16 have passed. Among a smattering of questions ranging from a New York state constitutional convention to pension reform, this year’s measures included two health care heavy hitters as well as the perennial issues of infrastructure funding and taxes.
Maine voters approved an expansion of Medicaid through Issue 2 last night in a vote that some have linked as a referndum on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and subsequent Republican attempts to repeal it. The state became the 32nd state to approve the expansion of the ACA and the first to approve it through a citizens’ initiative.
The other major health care measure failed spectacularly, although the reasons are far from clear. In an attempt to limit prescription costs, Ohio Issue 2 would have required that state-funded health programs pay no more for drugs than the lowest price paid by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Issue 2 became the most expensive ballot question in the state’s history, with the lion’s share of the funds spent by the pharmaceutical industry. This Ohio measure followed a similar measure in California from 2016, Proposition 61, which met the same fate.
Voters smiled upon transportation and infrastructure issues, however. The future already looked bright after Maine voters approved a bond measure in the summer that sought to spark business investment. And last night, Maine voters approved Question 3, a bond to fund the likes of highways, bridges and more. In October, Louisiana and West Virginia voters led the way, passing their own transportation funding packages. New Jersey wasn’t to be left behind and approved a measure funding libraries, a consistent crowd favorite.
The perennial issue of taxes was not to be left out. Voters in Louisiana and Texas have now both approved tax exemptions for the surviving spouses of first-responders killed in the line of duty. The Lonestar State also approved a tax exemption for partially disabled vets and surviving spouses.
Technically, Washington state voters weighed in on three ballot “advisory questions.” While legally non-binding, voters nonetheless disapproved of the three tax increases that the state legislature had passed earlier in the year.
On the last two closely-watched ballot measures, both in New York, voters rejected the chance to hold a state constitutional convention (a question posed to Empire State voters every 20 years because it is written into the state constitution itself). But voters there did approve a reform to the state pension system allowing a judge to revoke a public servant’s pension if he is convicted of a felony related to his position. Perhaps voters are fed up with recent corruption charges in the state and the potential for a government employee being able to both be sent to prison and still collect a state pension.
For more on this year’s ballot measures and legislative results, see NCSL’s StateVote 2017 webpage. For complete details on this year’s ballot measures—and all previous years—see NCSL’s Ballot Measures database.
Patrick Potyondy is a legislative policy specialist and Mellon-ACLS public fellow in NCSL’s Elections and Redistricting Program.
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