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Washington - Voters in many US states on Tuesday made clear their distaste for tax hikes, voting to limit how their states may raise revenue and changing how some budget decisions are made.
Still, voters worked to preserve education funding, approving billions of dollars in public debt for schools.
The longest and deepest economic recession since the end of World War Two has left states scrambling to balance their budgets even though the recession officially ended last summer.
All states except Vermont must end their fiscal years with balanced budgets, and for two years legislators have been slashing spending and raising taxes to wipe out deficits.
Most notably on Tuesday, a measure establishing an income tax in Washington failed. The initiative would have levied the tax on individuals making more than $200 000 a year and couples earning more than $400 000 a year.
California voters said "no" to making marijuana legal and taxing its sales, as well as to raising fees for visiting state parks and eliminating corporate tax breaks.
Voters in Iowa, Missouri and Montana all curbed legislatures' abilities to raise taxes and fees. Massachusetts voters repealed the state sales tax on alcohol, while Indiana cemented its statutory property tax cap in the state constitution.
A trio of proposed constitutional amendments in Colorado that would have radically limited how the state could tax and borrow failed.
Dubbed "Armageddon on Colorado Ballots" by the Denver Post's editorial page, the measures would have cut the state income tax rate, banned future state borrowing, required voter approval for local government borrowing, and cut or reduced other taxes.
Massachusetts voters also rejected a tax cut, voting down a measure to reduce the state sales tax to 3% from 6.25%, which would have cost the state $2.5bn.
Many state measures that would change states' budget processes succeeded on Tuesday.
In California, where the state government regularly deadlocks over passing a budget for months, voters agreed to change the legislative vote requirement necessary to pass a budget from two-thirds to a simple majority.
The Golden State now also requires lawmakers to forfeit pay if they fail to pass a budget bill by June 15.
Hawaiians agreed to issue tax rebates when the state runs a budget surplus, while North Dakotans approved creating a reserve from taxes collected on oil and gas mining.
South Carolina, Oklahoma, and Virginia all voted to expand their rainy-day funds.
Meanwhile, more than half of the nearly $16bn bond ballot measures in Tuesday's elections, 58%, were dedicated to schools, according to the Bond Buyer. More than 10% was for financing colleges and other educational purposes.
By early Wednesday morning, many major education bond measures totaling more than $2.2bn had been approved by voters in California, a state hobbled by the housing downturn and accompanying recession.
Voters in Alaska passed nearly $1bn of debt, with $397.2m going to building schools, libraries and research facilities. Two Texas school districts also passed sizable bond issues, with San Antonio School District voters approving $515m in debt and Katy School District voters approving $459.8m.
