Marijuana legalization, millionaire tax clear signature hurdle
Seven initiative petition campaigns, including marijuana legalization, have submitted a sufficient number of signatures for their proposals to be sent to the Legislature for consideration, according to Secretary of State William Galvin.
In addition to recreational marijuana, the six questions deal with a constitutional amendment seeking to impose an additional tax on incomes above $1 million, expanded gaming, charter schools, Common Core education standards, protection of farm animals and health care pricing.
The farm animal protection proposal collected the most certified signatures (95,817), followed by the so-called millionaire's tax (92,617), the Common Core repeal (76,016), expanded gaming (74,521), marijuana legalization (70,739), charter school access (70,716) and fair health care pricing (68,755), according to Galvin's office. The campaigns needed at least 64,750 certified signatures.
Once the certified petitions are presented to the House clerk, they will be assigned to committees for review and public hearings. If lawmakers fail to act on the proposals by May 3, campaigns must collect another 10,792 signatures by July 6 in order to secure ballot access in November 2016.
The constitutional amendment initiative must be acted upon by two joint sessions of the Legislature before it could appear on the 2018 statewide ballot.
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