Politicians, ballot initiatives, and interest groups advocating for higher taxes are heading into the fall with cause for concern. That’s because recent weeks and months have provided numerous instances of voters rejecting proposed tax increases, including in some of the country’s most left-leaning jurisdictions.
Take California’s June primary elections, particularly how San Francisco voters responded to Measure D, a ballot measure seeking to raise the local gross receipts tax that targets companies based on CEO pay. Measure D would’ve raised San Francisco’s gross receipts tax rates, which currently range from 0.021 percent-0.125 percent, to 0.183 percent-1.121 percent. More than 54 percent of San Francisco voters ended up rejecting that proposal to raise business gross receipts tax rates by 800 to 900 percent.
San Francisco is not the only large, left-leaning city where voters rejected a ballot proposition seeking to impose a targeted tax hike on businesses that are seen as an easy political target. While San Franciscans rejected Measure D, in that same June primary election, Los Angeles voters rejected Measure TT, which would’ve temporarily raised the local hotel occupancy tax from 14 percent to 16 percent.
The rate hike is not the only way in which TT would’ve raised taxes on hotel guests. Measure TT would’ve also extended the hotel tax to a host of taxes and fees to which it does not currently apply. Measure TT went on to lose with nearly 53 percent of Los Angeles voters opposing it.
The day after Los Angeles rejected a hotel tax hike, on the other side of the country, Philadelphia City Council members killed a lodging tax hike proposed by Mayor Cherelle Parker (D). The Mayor had been pushing a new budget proposal that raises the local tax on short-term rentals from 15.5 percent to 21.5 percent, and hikes the hotel tax from 15.5 percent to 16.1 percent. On June 3rd, the Philadelphia City Council voted to officially reject the Mayor’s proposed tax hike.
The Philadelphia City Council didn’t just approve a new city budget without the Mayor’s short-term rental and hotel tax hikes. The Council also rejected the Mayor’s proposed tax hikes on ride-sharing and food delivery. Aside from the increased costs the proposed taxes would’ve imposed on their constituents, members of the Philadelphia City Council were also pessimistic that the tax hikes proposed by the mayor could get the necessary authorization from state legislators in Harrisburg.
That development in Philadelphia comes seven months after voters in another left-leaning locale rejected a tax hike on short-term rentals. In November of 2025, voters in Vail defeated Ballot Issue 2A, which would’ve imposed a 6.0 percent excise tax on short-term rentals in that Colorado enclave. In the same November 2025 general election, voters in another notoriously blue city, Austin, rejected a ballot measure to raise property taxes. Two months before those tax hikes were defeated in Colorado and Texas, Oregon lawmakers passed a bill to raise the gas tax, the payroll tax, and vehicle registration fees. However, back in March, Oregonians overturned those tax hikes, with more than 83 percent voting in favor of repeal.
The slew of tax hikes that have been rejected, even by some of the country’s most leftwing electorates, indicates rising anti-tax sentiment is not limited to red states. What’s more, the public sentiment illustrated by these measures helps explain why more politicians are seeking less transparent ways to raise revenue, such as through the creation of Extended Producer Responsibility programs and other bureaucratic regimes designed to effectively raise taxes in an opaque manner.
This trend should worry backers of the November ballot measure that would raise Seattle’s sales tax. Likewise, recent results bode well for the prospects of Proposition 43, which would protect Californians by subjecting all future local ballot initiatives that raise taxes to a supermajority voter approval requirement, along with the two constitutional ballots on North Carolina’s ballot that would limit the growth of property tax collections and lower the state’s income tax cap. The Golden State’s election results likely won’t be made final until December, but Californians approval of Proposition 43, along with a rejection of the ballot initiatives to extend temporary income tax hikes and impose the nation’s first wealth tax, would make clear that the recent trend of anti-tax sentiment, even among left-leaning electorates, is not waning.
