On November 8, 2016, Illinois voters approved the Illinois Transportation Taxes and Fees Lockbox Amendment, a legislatively referred constitutional amendment that prohibits lawmakers from using transportation funds for anything other than their stated purpose.[1]
The amendment added the following a Section 11 to Article IX of the Illinois Constitution:
The amendment had been sponsored in the legislature by Democrat Brandon Phelps.[1]
Only four members of the Illinois House of Representatives voted against placing the amendment on the ballot (Democrats Barbara Flynn Currie, Laura Fine, Elaine Nekritz, and Pamela Reaves-Harris).[1] The four published an op-ed in which they argued, "Experience has demonstrated that unexpected events can have drastic impacts on our state budget. A major natural disaster or economic turmoil can blow huge holes in a budget, even in states in healthy financial condition - which Illinois is decidedly not. This amendment would severely curtail the ability of the state to react to these types of events."[1]
In order to be approved, the measure required either 60% support among those specifically voting on the amendment or 50% support among all ballots cast in the elections.[1] [2]
The ballot title was,
The ballot summary read,
| Illinois Transportation Taxes and Fees Lockbox Amendment[3] | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Option | Votes | % of votes on measure | % of all ballots cast | ||||
| text align=center | For | text align=center | 3,796,654 | text align=center | 78.94 | text align=center | 67.47 |
| text align=center | Against | text align=center | 1,014,461 | text align=center | 21.09 | text align=center | 18.03 |
| text align=center | Total votes | text align=center | 4,811,115 | text align=center | 100 | text align=center | 85.50 |
| Voter turnout | colspan=3 text align=right | 59.92% |