Progressive ballot initiative victories in the 2022 midterms have given the Left more clues about the best ways to expand public goods while taxing the rich. One lesson: don’t just tell voters how new tax revenue will be spent — structure the policy so that voters know exactly how their lives will improve.

Others have forcefully argued that using “the ballot” (the citizen initiative process in US states and municipalities) can help win structural economic reforms while building left political power through coalition-driven campaigns. One way to use the ballot to increase taxes on the rich is to tell voters how new tax revenue will be spent, which was likely one reason Arizona voters decided to raise taxes on high incomes in 2020 for K–12 education. This may also be why voters in Illinois — a state where Democrats never lose anymore — rejected a policy in 2020 to raise taxes on the rich, as it was largely disconnected from any meaningful ways to spend the new tax revenue.

Recently, Benjamin Case and Michael McQuarrie catalogued how voters across the United States approved egalitarian policy questions on state ballots in the 2022 midterm elections. One victory came in Massachusetts, where voters approved a policy (Question 1) to raise taxes on incomes above $1 million to increase education and transportation funding. This was a good reform, but a closer look may raise some eyebrows: the measure only passed by 4 points (52 to 48 percent), despite a muscular grassroots coalition leading the campaign and a whopping 29 point victory by the Democratic gubernatorial candidate.