LANSING – The Department of State on Thursday gave the okay to ballot signatures from the group aiming to put a two-thirds majority vote for tax increases on the ballot, as well as a proposal to designed to thwart Governor Rick Snyder’s new bridge between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario.

A staff review found that the Michigan Alliance for Prosperity, the group favoring a constitutional amendment requiring two-thirds majorities in the House and Senate, or a statewide public vote, to approve a tax increase, filed more than 629,000 signatures. The department estimated that 521,752 signatures were valid, far passing the needed 322,609 signatures.

The group Defend Michigan Democracy submitted a signature challenge trying to assert that some petition collectors were not registered voters, signees were not registered to vote in their identified city and other allegations. Department staff said the group still had enough valid signatures.

Taxpayers United Michigan Foundation also challenged the sufficiency of the form of petitions in that “the existing provision of the constitution (simple majority vote) that the proposal would alter or abrogate was not stated in the petition,” among other allegations, but the department staff expressed no opinion regarding the legal challenge. That issue almost surely will be resolved in the courts.

The department also certified a petition by The People Should Decide, a group in opposition to building the New International Trade Crossing developed by Governor Rick Snyder with the Canadian government. The staff review found the group had turned in more than 596,000 signatures and 477,048 were valid based on its sample.

The group Taxpayers Against Monopolies challenged the signatures asserting that the sponsor omitted three sections of the Constitution “altered or abrogated” by the proposal. It also alleged the petition restricts the state’s authority to construct and finance bridges of any kind.

Department staff again expressed no opinion regarding the merits of the challenge. That too is likely to require court resolution.

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