Exceptions to the popular referendum are written into the constitution: Laws “necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health or safety, support of the state government and its existing public institutions” cannot be overturned by referendum. And it is those exceptions that Democratic lawmakers invoked this last legislative session when they squeezed through a new tax on certain income. All quite clever, except there are two problems, both involving the truth.
This new tax on investment income was not passed in response to an immediate need, nor was it immediately essential. It won’t even go into effect until 2022, and the state’s revenue is billions of dollars more
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