9 State Tax Ballot Measures to Watch in November

Measure 4 also prohibits localities from issuing bonds after Feb. 2, 2025.

Oregon

Measure 118: Corporate Tax Revenue Rebate for Residents 

This measure would establish a new 3% corporate minimum tax on Oregon gross sales above $25 million — for a business with a 7% profit margin, the equivalent of a 43% corporate income tax. The new tax would be imposed in lieu of the corporate income tax for most taxpayers, but in addition to the 0.57% Corporate Activity Tax and other local and regional business income taxes.

Opponents, including the Tax Foundation, say the tax could lead to big price increases for Oregon residents while driving up the cost of doing business in the state. Oregon residents who spend more than 200 days in the state would receive rebates financed through this new tax.

South Dakota

Initiated Measure 28: Prohibit Food and Grocery Taxes Initiative

This measure would prohibit state sales taxes on items sold for human consumption, excluding alcoholic beverages, tobacco and prepared foods. If passed, it would eliminate the 4.2% state sales tax on groceries, potentially reducing state revenues by some $124 million annually, starting in July 2025. Local governments, however, would continue to be able to tax grocery purchases.

Utah is the only state that fully earmarks how its income tax revenue is spent. Under a pending constitutional question, Utah voters could eliminate the earmark, which dedicates all funding to K-12 and higher education.

Such a vote, Tax Foundation says, would also trigger the elimination of the state, but not local, tax on groceries, which lawmakers approved conditional upon voters ratifying this constitutional amendment.

Washington

Initiative 2109: Repeal Capital Gains Tax 

Washington lawmakers implemented a tax on high earners’ net capital gains income despite constitutional restrictions on income taxation. The state supreme court affirmed it, concluding that the tax is on the privilege of earning income, not on the income itself. Initiative 2109 would repeal the tax, which applies only to capital gains income of $250,000 or more.

Wyoming

Property Tax on Residential Property and Owner-Occupied Primary Residences Amendment

This legislatively referred constitutional amendment would add residential property as a fourth class of property to the state’s tax code, and authorize the legislature to create a new subclass of residential property for owner-occupied primary residences with a distinct assessment ratio.