Utahns rejected the constitutional amendment requiring citizen-led ballot initiatives that affect taxes to pass with a 60% majority vote. Amendment B failed after the Associated Press called the race at 9:36 p.m.
The other statewide proposal, Amendment A, removes the requirement for all future proposed constitutional amendments or initiatives to be published in newspapers before an election. It has yet to be called.
Amendment B drew the most attention because of its balance of power implications between lawmakers and voters. Opponents argue B gives the Legislature too much power and is lawmakers' response to the fallout over court-ordered redistricting.
The 2018 anti-gerrymandering ballot initiative, Proposition 4, set off a near-decade-long saga that led to a map with a Democratic-leaning congressional district centered on Salt Lake County in the midterms.
The outcome has notably frustrated Republicans in the Legislature.
In its current form, Amendment B focuses on citizen-led initiatives that propose tax increases, pushing the threshold beyond a simple majority vote. Critics don't buy that narrative.
Political issues committee Utahns Protecting our Constitution" spent almost $3.2 million urging a vote against Amendment B. Over half came from D.C.-based The Fairness Project, a so-called dark money group that doesn't have to disclose its donors.
Amendment supporters include GOP lawmakers, the Utah Republican Party and the Utah Taxpayers Association. To them, the amendment would protect taxpayers from paying more due to initiatives that don't relate to them. A common example lawmakers gave during the legislative session was that people in St. George shouldn't face higher taxes for a Salt Lake City cause. They say the 60% threshold vote would give more Utahns a say.
An Oct. 29 Noble Predictive Insights poll showed 56% of Utahns opposed the constitutional change proposed in Amendment B. Utah GOP Chair Robert Axson said in a statement that the survey held "hidden liberal agendas to confuse and complicate" the discussion surrounding the amendment.
"There's a reason national liberal activists and organizations are willing to spend millions to defeat Amendment B, and it's the very reason Utah voters should support it," he said.
The plea, however, fell on deaf ears, and Utahns voted the amendment down.
Director of the University of Utah's Hinkley Institute of Politics, Jason Perry, was cautious to call Amendment B a "referendum on leadership." But it could be revealing.
"Keep in mind our Constitution is very clear that the powers of the legislature are co-equal between the people and the legislature, and this amendment kind of gets to what kind of power the people would like our legislature to have," Perry said.
A Deseret News/Hinckley Institute of Politics poll found 27% of Utah voters said corruption would have a major impact on how they vote this year. A concern that was on display in the fallout from the Box Elder data center that ousted Senate President Stuart Adams in the June primary. And now, with voters rejecting Amendment B, politicians have another indicator of how voters feel about how business is done at the Utah State Capitol.
Lawmakers will decide on new legislative leadership on Nov. 6.
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