Advocacy News – July 1, 2025
If you’re planning to attend a farmers’ market, concert or festival this summer, there’s a good chance you’ll be approached by a petition circulator for your signature. Up to eight different groups are expected to be seeking sweeping changes to state law or the Michigan Constitution.
⚠️Buyer beware: Petition gatherers are commonly compensated per-signature (based on the number of valid signatures collected), meaning they are incentivized to convince voters to sign. Citizens should read the full petition before signing — especially because the 100-word summary may not provide an accurate or full description of the proposal. Petitions expected to be in the field this summer include:
- Graduated Income Tax (proponents refer to as “Invest in MI Kids”) – Proponents want to increase Michigan’s income tax to 9.5% for income exceeding $500,000 as single filer ($1,000,000 for joint filers) including many small and midsized businesses, most of which are pass-through entities (sole proprietorships, partnerships, S corporations, LLCs) and whose income is taxed at the owner’s individual rate. Proponents of the Constitutional amendment say the new funding would be allocated for Michigan schools — although they’ve outlined zero plans for how they’ll use the revenue to boost student achievement. If approved by voters, Michigan would have the 7th highest income tax rate in the country and highest in the Midwest — nearly tripling Indiana and Ohio’s rates (3% and 3.5% respectively).
- Organizers need to collect 446,198 signatures in a 180-day window to make the 2026 general election ballot.
- Minimum Wage (proponents refer to as “Voters to Stop Pay Cuts”) – Proponents are looking to reinstate the Michigan Supreme Court’s (MCS) July 2024 opinion, which ordered into effect a 2018 ballot proposal to increase the state’s minimum wage and fully eliminate tipped minimum wage. If enough signatures are gathered by proponents of the referendum, Public Act 1of 2025 (legislation passed by the Legislature to deal with the fall our of the MCS’s monumental decision) would be paused until the statewide vote. In other words, the 2018 ballot initiative (which was never voted on by the people) would go into effect, thereby reducing the minimum wage for hourly workers and forcing bars and restaurants to pay the full minimum wage to all employees — with tips added on top — until a referendum vote is taken. This proposal creates a new round of chaos for an already-vulnerable service industry and force increased prices, layoffs, job automation, or make other drastic changes.
- Organizers need to collect 223,099 valid signatures to get the issue on the November 2026 ballot. If supporters collect enough signatures, the referendum would appear on the November 2026 ballot and immediately freeze the implementation of Public Act 1 of 2025.
- Rank MI Vote – Supporters want to fundamentally change how Michiganders choose many of their elected officials with ranked choice voting. If adopted, the Constitutional amendment would require voters to cast ballots ranking candidates in order of preference. Initially only voters’ top choice is counted, but if no candidate has an immediate majority, the candidate with the least votes is eliminated. All the voters who chose the eliminated candidate then have their second-place votes distributed to the remaining contestants. The process repeats until one candidate has more than 50% of the vote. If adopted, Michigan would be the second state to use this process for both the primary and general elections.
- Organizers need to collect 446,198 signatures in a 180-day window to make the 2026 general election ballot.
- AxMITax – Supporters, who failed to make the ballot in 2024, are again seeking to eliminate all property taxes in Michigan and make it harder to raise any other taxes in the future. The Constitutional amendment would also require future tax increases at the local level to gain approval from 60% of voters and any state tax increases at the state level to receive two-thirds support by the Michigan Legislature. Finally, it would direct the state to send more sales, marijuana, alcohol, and tobacco tax revenue to local governments to make up for the revenue loss.
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- Organizers need to collect 446,198 signatures in a 180-day window to make the 2026 general election ballot.
- Committee to Protect Voters Rights – This proposal, which is one of two Constitutional amendments that could be on the November 2026 ballot, would require proof of citizenship to register to vote and to require photo ID for in-person voting, eliminating a current option that allows voters without ID to sign an affidavit of identity under penalty of perjury.
- Organizers need to collect 446,198 signatures in a 180-day window to make the 2026 general election ballot.
- Americans for Citizen Voting – This second voting proposal would amend the Constitution to: require the Secretary of State to verify citizenship of all registered voters, document citizenship and remove any noncitizens from the voter rolls; eliminate the affidavit option that allows voters without an ID to cast a ballot on Election Day; create a hardship program to provide free IDs to citizens who cannot afford them; and create two separate voter lists, one for voters who have proven their citizenship and one for those who haven’t and could only vote in federal races.
- Organizers need to collect 446,198 signatures in a 180-day window to make the 2026 general election ballot.
- Ban on political spending by job providers – On Monday, Voters Not Politicians, Clean Water Action and Michigan United Action, announced that they are standing up a ballot campaign to ban “major contractors” (defined as businesses with “state government contracts worth more than $250,000”) from giving money to elected leaders and related nonprofits — limiting their ability to engage in free speech via political spending. Not only are express advocacy communications prohibited, but, if adopted, this proposal would also seek to restrict issue advocacy, which is used extensively to educate the public without crossing over into direct political advocacy.
- If the proposal gets off the ground, proponents will need to collect 356,958 signatures to make the 2026 general election ballot.
- Paid family leave – We continue to hear rumors that proponents of paid family leave are gearing up to get this issue on the 2026 ballot. While details are slim, we would expect the proposal to mirror prior legislation on the topic, giving employees the right to take up to 15 weeks of paid intermittent leave from work to care for themselves or their families. Recipients of paid leave benefits would be eligible to receive up to a set percentage of the state’s average weekly wage (e.g., 65%, or approximately $788 per week). The proposal would be available to all employees and be paid for by a new payroll taxes on employers. It is estimated that a program of this type could cost anywhere from $1-1.5 billion annually.
The bottom line: Recent wins on ballot initiatives, like marijuana legalization (2018), redistricting reform (2018) and voting rights (2022), have shown that well-funded groups can persuade voters to pass major policy changes without going through the traditional legislative process. Combine that with Michigan’s relatively low signature thresholds and wide-open rules on subject matter, and you’ve got a recipe for confusion, overreach and unintended consequences at the ballot box.
Remember: A 2026 ballot proposal might sound good — but is it?
For questions or more information, contact Wendy Block.