Opinion ID: 1349849
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: the headlee amendment

Text: Sections 25 through 34 of article 9 of the Constitution of 1963 were adopted pursuant to initiative petition, Proposal E, at the general election of November 7, 1978. [2] They are popularly called the Headlee Amendment. The Headlee Amendment imposes on state and local government a fairly complex system of revenue and tax limits. These are summarized in art. 9, § 25 and implemented in the following sections. There are three main elements. Section 26 limits any changes in total state revenues to an amount based on changes in personal income in the state. Section 31 prohibits units of local government from levying any new tax or increasing any existing tax above authorized rates without the approval of the unit's electorate. [3] The third element of the Headlee system is summarized in art. 9, § 25, which states in part, The state is prohibited from requiring any new or expanded activities by local governments without full state financing, from reducing the proportion of state spending in the form of aid to local governments, or from shifting the tax burden to local government. [4] These requirements are implemented in §§ 29 [5] and 30. [6] The application of the general, even vague, concepts of these sections to the complexities of state-local relations has proven a difficult task, as illustrated by the history of this case.