Passing tax increases the hard way.

The recent debate in Washington, D.C., over requiring a three-fifths vote of Congress in order to raise taxes, has rekindled interest in state supermajority requirements and how they affect state finances.

Twelve states now use supermajority requirements to restrict legislative tax powers. Supermajority requirements are not tax limitations in the traditional sense, although they can serve to limit the growth of state revenues if they prevent tax increases. Supermajority requirements dictate either a two-thirds, three-fourths or three-fifths majority vote in both chambers to pass tax increases or new taxes.

The Arkansas legislature was the first, in 1934, to require tax increases to be approved by an extraordinary majority. Arkansas courts have interpreted the supermajority requirement to apply only to taxes on the books when it was adopted, so sales taxes and alcohol excise taxes are exempt from the requirement. Legislatures in Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida followed with supermajority requirements. The Louisiana and Mississippi measures apply to all tax increases. The Florida measure applies only to bills that increase the corporate income tax above a constitutional cap of 5 percent.

Citizens took up the cause in the late 1970s in California and South Dakota, passing initiatives to require supermajority votes. The Delaware General Assembly referred the issue to the ballot and voters passed it in 1980.

Another wave of supermajority requirement initiatives surfaced in the early 1990s as citizens in at least six states...