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Committee hears competing views on raising override threshold for local tax caps and related statutory cleanups
Summary
House Bill 200 would raise the vote threshold to override a locally adopted tax cap from a simple majority to three-fifths; House Bill 374 would make technical corrections and clarifications to recent tax-cap statutes.
Representative Diane Power introduced House Bill 200 to change the vote threshold required to override a locally adopted tax cap from a simple majority to a three-fifths majority. "A tax cap is adopted by a three-fifths majority, not a simple majority," she told the committee, and said it is reasonable to require the same threshold to override the cap because overriding can impose extraordinary long-term financial commitments on taxpayers.
Supporters, including Eric Power of Brookline, said they researched other jurisdictions and could not find tax caps that are overridden by a simple majority. "I could not find a single tax cap that was overridden by a simple majority," he said, and argued the change…
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