A statewide campaign to defeat Amendment B launched Monday, Sept. 28, backed by roughly $593,000 and what opponents call an attack on a 125-year-old citizen right.
Amendment B appears on the Nov. 3 general election ballot for Utah County voters, including those in Alpine, Highland, Cedar Hills and Lehi. It asks whether citizen-led ballot initiatives that raise or create taxes should need 60% voter approval instead of a simple majority.
Utahns Protecting Our Constitution, the political issues committee running the opposition, plans TV ads, mail, canvassing and digital outreach in the weeks before ballots hit mailboxes in mid-October, as first reported by Utah News Dispatch.
Elizabeth Rasmussen, executive director of both Utahns Protecting Our Constitution and the anti-gerrymandering group Better Boundaries, told the Salt Lake Tribune the amendment's language is too broad. "The language is very vague. It's not clear how it will be applied, so I just ask voters of Utah: Do you trust the Legislature and those on Capitol Hill to make that judgment?" Rasmussen said.
Campaign finance disclosures show the committee has collected about $593,000, including $25,000 from Utahns for Responsive Government and nearly $23,000 from the Democratic Policy Institute, according to Utah News Dispatch.
Supporters say it protects taxpayers
State Sen. Lincoln Fillmore, R-South Jordan, sponsored the amendment through the 2025 legislative session as SJR002. Fillmore and House co-sponsor Rep. Jason Kyle said in a joint statement Sept. 28 that the measure protects the initiative process while requiring broad neighbor support before raising taxes.
Taxpayer Shield PAC and the Utah Taxpayers Association are both pushing for a "yes" vote. Rusty Cannon of Taxpayer Shield PAC told ABC4 the amendment simply requires 60% approval for any citizen-led initiative that raises or imposes a new tax.
In a Sept. 28 interview with the Salt Lake Tribune, Fillmore said rising costs justify the higher bar. "Property taxes are going up and incomes are not keeping pace with inflation, and it's right for the government to protect people's ability to afford their own lives," he said.
How past initiatives would have fared
Only two citizen initiatives in Utah's 125-year initiative history have cleared 60% of the vote. Both passed in 2000. One made English the state's official language and the other changed property-forfeiture laws.
Three 2018 initiatives fell short of that mark. Medicaid expansion passed with 53.3%, medical marijuana with 52.7% and the Better Boundaries redistricting measure with 50.3%. The Medicaid and marijuana measures both created new tax revenue streams, so under Amendment B's threshold, neither would have passed.
Utah already requires initiative proponents to gather nearly 141,000 signatures across 26 of 29 state Senate districts before a measure reaches the ballot.
Polling and what's next
A Noble Predictive Insights poll of 602 registered Utah voters, conducted Sept. 8–12, found 50% support Amendment B, 21% oppose it and 23% are unsure. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.99 percentage points, ABC4 reported.
Utah County voters can find Amendment B on their sample ballot. The general election is Tuesday, Nov. 3.
