Archive for Taxes
Recent Stories for Taxes
Drink tax is kept off ballot
Category: Alcohol Sales · State: Pennsylvania · Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The Allegheny County Board of Elections yesterday ruled that both referendum questions on the 10 percent drink tax should not be placed on the November ballot because they are illegal according to county and state law. In a ruling that seems to be a bigger blow to the restaurateurs and bar owners than it is to the county, the three judges temporarily serving as Board of Elections members unanimously declined to certify either ballot initiative. Bar and restaurant owners wanted to decrease the drink tax to 0.5 percent from 10 percent. The county wanted a referendum to offset a loss in drink tax revenues with a property tax increase. The county judges, appointed to replace the regular board members because of their public positions on both measures, cited established case law -- Hempfield School District v. Lancaster County -- to knock down the referendum petition by the group Friends Against Counterproductive Taxation, called FACT. FACT is composed of restaurateurs and bar owners who have opposed the drink tax since it was proposed together with a $2-a-day tax on car rentals to fund mass transit. It submitted 44,598 petition signatures to the county elections office last month in support of a ballot initiative to ask voters whether they want a reduction in the drink tax.
NOVEMBER BALLOT: Property tax petition advances
Category: Taxes · State: Nevada · Source: Las Vegas Review-Journal
Secretary of State Ross Miller on Thursday rejected a challenge to Sharron Angle's initiative petition to cap property tax rates, sending it to the November general election. The constitutional amendment, which would limit annual property tax increases to 2 percent per year on all property, faced a challenge from the state teachers union aimed at keeping it off the ballot. After a review of the complaint and the response from Angle's attorney, the concerns over the affidavits filed by signature gatherers were rejected, said Matt Griffin, deputy secretary of state for elections. Barring a successful legal challenge by the Nevada State Education Association in the courts, the measure will be on the ballot, he said. It will have to pass twice, in November and again in 2010, before it can take effect.
Tax rates proposal may go to ballot
Category: Taxes · State: Michigan · Source: Detroit Free Press
Residents in Troy may get to decide during the November election whether the city would need to get voter approval for future tax increases. Advertisement The Troy City Council is considering a citizen-initiated petition, signed by more than 2,700 residents, that proposes freezing the city's tax rate for operating and capital costs at 8.1 mills, costing a resident with a home that has a $124,885 taxable value -- the average in Troy -- $1,012 a year. The council discussed the issue Monday but postponed making a decision until the Aug. 11 meeting. "I am 100% for the people and putting it on the ballot," Troy resident Audre Zembrzuski, who signed the petition, told the council Monday. "I think it's about time we got down to brass tacks."
Judge: Redo wording on 1-cent tax plan
Category: Taxes · State: Arizona · Source: Arizona Daily Star
The group backing an initiative on the November ballot to raise the state sales tax to fund transportation won a battle to get the proposal's description rewritten in the voter information pamphlet. The initiative would add a penny tax on each dollar spent to pay for 30 years' worth of road and transit projects statewide. Supporters went to court over the wording in a state voter information pamphlet approved by a legislative committee, saying it would sway voters to say no.
Petition for state education funding filed
Category: Education · State: Oklahoma · Source: Tulsa World
Leading public education support groups including the Oklahoma Education Association filed a petition Wednesday with the state to put to a vote of the people a requirement that Oklahoma's students are funded at the average of the seven-state regional level. Chuck Pack, a teacher at Tahlequah High School, said he is spending about $600 a school year so that his math students have adequate supplies.
Monthly Archives for Taxes
- September 2008 (1)
- August 2008 (8)
- July 2008 (2)
- June 2008 (3)
- May 2008 (3)
- December 2007 (4)
- November 2007 (27)
- October 2007 (15)