Article IV
Sec. 41: The legislature may authorize lotteries and permit the sale of lottery tickets in the manner provided by law. Effective October 1, 1981, net revenue earned by the state from the operation of a lottery shall be deposited in the state school aid fund.
Sec. 54: A counter-cyclical budget and economic stabilization fund, consisting of a budget stabilization formula and an economic stabilization formula to assist in stabilizing the budget and economy of the state during periods of economic recession and high unemployment, shall be established by law before January 1, 1982. After December 31, 1981, the law establishing a counter-cyclical budget and economic stabilization fund pursuant to this section shall not be amended or repealed without the assent of two-thirds of the members elected to and serving in each house of the legislature.
Article IX
Sec. 2: The power of taxation shall never be surrendered, suspended, or contracted away by the state or any municipal corporation.
Sec. 3: The legislature shall provide for the uniform general ad valorem taxation of real and tangible personal property not exempt by law. The legislature shall provide for the determination of true cash value of such property; the proportion of true cash value at which such property shall be uniformly assessed, which shall not, after January 1, 1966, exceed 50 percent; and for a system of equalization of assessments. For purposes of assessing agricultural and forestry property, true cash value may be based, as provided by law, on its use as agricultural and forestry property. Effective for ad valorem property taxes levied after December 31, 1980 for operating purposes, as defined by law, the ad valorem tax levied upon not less than $7,100.00 of the state equalized valuation, as adjusted by law, of the homestead, as defined by law, of a person who is a resident of this state shall be, upon proper application, exempt from collection. The amount of the state equalized valuation on which taxes are exempt from collection under this section shall be adjusted annually for ad valorem property tax levies in the 1982 calendar year and for ad valorem property tax levies in each calendar year thereafter pursuant to law by the same percentage as the percentage increase or decrease in the state equalized value of residential and agricultural real property in this state, excluding new construction and improvements. The exemption of collection of taxes provided by this 1980 amendment shall not be effective if this constitution is amended to limit the maximum proportion of true cash value at which real and tangible personal property may be assessed to less than 50 percent. The legislature may provide for alternative means of taxation of designated real and tangible personal property in lieu of general ad valorem taxation. Every tax other than the general ad valorem property tax shall be uniform upon the class or classes on which it operates.
Sec. 8: Except as provided in this section for those purposes provided by this section, the legislature shall not impose a sales tax on retailers at a rate of more than 4% of their gross taxable sales of tangible personal property.
No sales tax or use tax shall be charged or collected from and after January 1, 1975 on the sale or use of prescription drugs for human use, or on the sale or use of food for human consumption except in the case of prepared food intended for immediate consumption as defined by law.
This provision shall not apply to alcoholic beverages.
To compensate units of government other than the state for loss of revenue resulting from repeal of the sales tax on food and prescription drugs, each present allocation of sales tax revenue to such units shall be increased by 1⁄5.
Beginning January 1, 1981, the legislature shall impose additional sales and use taxes at a rate of 1.5% on the sale or use of tangible personal property not exempt by law. The revenue collected from the imposition of the additional 1.5% sales and use taxes and any interest earned on those taxes shall be used for the sole purpose of providing, and administering the costs of providing, new or additional homestead property tax relief for certain homeowners and renters, or replacement revenues for the loss of revenues from a reduction in the imposition of the sales and use taxes for certain energy producing products and energy producing utility services defined by law, or both, as provided by law. So long as the exemption from collection of the ad valorem property tax levied upon not less than $7,100.00 of the state equalized valuation, as adjusted by law, of a homestead of a resident of this state which is provided by section 3 of this article is effective, the state shall reimburse units of local government in a manner provided by law for a proportion of the revenues not collected because of that exemption. This proportion shall not be less than the proportion at which reimbursement is provided the state for the costs of providing new or additional homestead property tax relief for certain renters and for state revenues lost from a reduction of sales and use taxes for certain energy producing products and energy producing utility services. The allocation of sales tax revenue required by sections 9, 10, and 11 of this article shall not apply to the revenue yielded by the levy of the additional 1.5% sales tax. Revenue collected from the imposition of the additional 1.5% sales and use taxes and any interest earned on those taxes shall not be considered as part of total state revenues for purposes of determining the revenue limit under section 26 of this article. The expenditure of revenue collected from the imposition of the additional 1.5% sales and use taxes and of interest earned on those taxes shall not be considered an expense of state government under section 28 of this article or in the annual computation of the proportion of total state spending paid to all units of local government for purposes of section 30 of this article. After January 1, 1985, a sales or use tax imposed pursuant to this section shall not be imposed upon the sale at retail to a person of certain energy producing products or energy producing utility services, as defined by law, for consumption or use in residential property, and not for resale, or upon the use in residential property of certain energy producing products or energy producing utility services, as defined by law.
Sec. 30: During each four-year period beginning with the four-year period commencing October 1, 1979, the proportion of total state spending paid to all units of Local Government, taken as a group, shall not be reduced below that proportion in effect in fiscal year 1978-79, except that in any one fiscal year the proportion shall not be lower than two percentage points below the proportion established for fiscal year 1978-1979. As used in this section, “total state spending” means the expenditures of the general fund and all special revenue funds of this state, excluding expenditures from restricted sources of federal aid, unrestricted sources of federal aid that expressly replace restricted sources of federal aid, local and private sources of finance, and any transfers to or from the counter-cyclical budget and economic stabilization fund created pursuant to Section 54 of Article 4.
If the state assumes the financing and administration of a function after December 22, 1978, which was previously an obligation of, financed by, or performed by a unit of Local Government, the state payments for this function before the beginning of the first full state fiscal year in which the state assumed financing and administration of the function shall be counted as state spending paid to units of Local Government. In the first full state fiscal year in which the state assumed financing and administration of the function and for each state fiscal year thereafter, the amount of state payments for this function which shall be counted as state spending paid to units of Local Government shall not be greater than the state payments directly attributable to the state assumption of the function in the first full state fiscal year in which the state assumed financing and administration of the function, as adjusted for each fiscal year thereafter by the percentage increase or decrease in total state spending for that fiscal year.
An annual computation of the proportion of total state spending paid to all units of Local Government shall not include expenditures for a specific program or function of state government if the following conditions are met: (1) The governor requests the legislature to declare an emergency exemption for a specific program or function of state government from the computation of the proportion of the total state spending paid to all units of Local Government; (2) the request is specific as to the nature of the emergency, the necessary expenditure, the reason why the specific program or function of state government should not be applied to the proportional spending requirement, and the anticipated duration of the exemption; and (3) the legislature thereafter declares an emergency in accordance with the specifics of the governor’s request, including the specific duration of the exemption, by a two-thirds vote of the members elected to and serving in each house. An emergency exemption from the computation of the proportion of total state spending paid to all units of Local Government must be declared in accordance with this section before incurring any expenses which would be included within the emergency exemption. A program or function of state government for which an emergency exemption may be declared shall not be considered to include the providing of revenues for the sole purpose of reaching the required proportion of total state spending which must be paid to all units of Local Government in a four-year period.
Sec. 31: Units of Local Government are hereby prohibited from levying any tax not authorized by law or charter when this section is ratified or from increasing the rate of an existing tax above that rate authorized by law or charter when this section is ratified, without the approval of a majority of the qualified electors of that unit of Local Government voting thereon. If the definition of the base of an existing tax is broadened, the maximum authorized rate of taxation on the new base in each unit of Local Government shall be reduced to yield the same estimated gross revenue as on the prior base. If the assessed valuation of real property as finally equalized, excluding the value of new construction and improvements, increases by a larger percentage than the increase in the General Price Level from the previous year, the maximum authorized rate applied
theretoin each unit of Local Government shall be reduced to yield the same gross revenue from existing real property, adjusted for changes in the General Price Level, as could have been collected at the existing authorized rate on the prior assessed value of real property.The limitations of this section shall not apply to taxes imposed for the payment of principal and interest on bonds or other evidence of indebtedness or for the payment of assessments
onor contract obligations in anticipation of which bonds are issued which were authorized prior tothe effective date of this amendmentDecember 23, 1978.
