The Utah State Legislature approved Senate Joint Resolution 2 on March 6, referring a constitutional amendment to the ballot for Nov. 3, 2026. SJR 2 would require citizen-initiated ballot measures to receive at least 60% voter approval to enact certain tax-related changes, including (a) imposing a new tax; (b) expanding an existing tax to apply to additional items or transactions; (c) increasing an existing tax rate; or (d) adjusting a property tax rate in a way that reduces the rate less than it would decrease under current law.

The amendment includes a provision stating that, if the amendment is approved, it would apply to initiatives on the 2026 ballot.

On February 5, 2025, the Senate approved the amendment in a vote of 21-8. All 21 yes votes came from Republican senators. The eight votes against the amendment came from the six Senate Democrats and two Senate Republicans.

On March 6, 2025, the House approved the amendment in a vote of 55-17 with one Democratic and two Republican representatives absent or not voting. All 55 yes votes came from Republican representatives. The 17 votes against the amendment came from the 13 voting House Democrats and four House Republicans.

Sen. Lincoln Fillmore (R-10), a supporter, said, “This is a fairly simple resolution. It asks the citizens of Utah to consider, ‘How easy do you want it to be to raise taxes on your neighbors.’” Sen. Kathleen Riebe (D-15), an opponent, said the amendment creates “an onerous threshold for the public to speak.”

A supermajority requirement is a condition for approval for certain ballot measure elections where more than a simple majority (50%+1) of voters must vote in favor of a ballot measure for the measure to be approved. Of the 49 states that provide for legislatively referred constitutional amendments, 11 states require a supermajority vote or other threshold for approval.

Supermajority requirements are also applied to specific ballot measure topics, such as tax increases, lotteries, or changing vote requirements:

• Arizona requires a 60% vote for voters to pass ballot measures to approve taxes. Voters approved this requirement via Proposition 132 in 2022.
• Utah requires a two-thirds (66.67%) vote for the approval of any initiatives concerning the taking of wildlife. Voters adopted this requirement with the passage of Proposition 5 in 1998.
• Washington requires 60% supermajority approval from all voters casting a ballot on initiatives or referendums related to lotteries.
• In Oregon, a ballot measure proposing a supermajority vote, such as a 60% vote, on ballot measures must be passed by the same vote threshold, such as 60%, as the measure itself proposes.

The last time a citizen initiative qualified for the ballot in Utah was 2018, when three initiated state statutes appeared on the ballot. Voters approved all three of the initiatives. All three were later amended by the state legislature. Before 2018, the last time an initiated statute was on the ballot and approved by voters was in 2000.

Between 1952 and 2022, 23 citizen initiatives appeared on the ballot. Of the 23 initiatives, seven were approved (30.4%) and 16 were defeated (69.6%). Of the approved measures, two received voter approval greater than 60%.

Since 2000, 30 ballot measures received more yes than no votes, but were not adopted because they did not meet the supermajority requirement for approval. Since 2000, Florida saw the most measures failing supermajority requirements with 13 constitutional amendments defeated despite receiving a majority of the vote in favor. In Florida, constitutional amendments require a 60% vote of approval.

Related:

Supermajority requirements for ballot measures

List of state ballot measures that failed supermajority requirements