Editing Carla Howell (section)

== Ballot initiatives ==
Howell spearheaded initiatives to repeal the Massachusetts state [[personal income tax]] in 2002<ref name="Gedan 2002">{{cite news |last1=Gedan |first1=Benjamin |title=On Nov. 5, A $9 Billion Question If Passed, Would Bar State Taxes |work=[[Boston Globe]] |date=12 August 2002}}</ref> and 2008.<ref name="Murphy 2009">{{cite news |last1=Murphy |first1=Matt |title=Taxes, tolls among key issues for ballot petitioners |work=[[Sentinel & Enterprise]] |date=6 August 2009}}</ref> In 2002, she sponsored 2002 Statewide Ballot Question 1, an [[Initiatives and referendums in the United States|initiative petition]] to end the [[income tax]] in Massachusetts.<ref name="Luttrell 2002"/><ref>[http://www.sec.state.ma.us/ele/ele02/elebq02/bq021.htm ''Massachusetts Secretary of state'' "2002 Ballot Question 1"]</ref> The measure received 45% of the vote, which Peter DeMarco, writing for the ''[[Boston Globe]]'', described as "eye-popping".<ref name="DeMarco 2003"/>

In 2007, Howell and co-chair [[Michael Cloud (Massachusetts politician)|Michael Cloud]], re-established the Committee For Small Government. The Committee obtained enough petition signatures to put the issue on the ballot<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/28/us/28ballot.html?bl&ex=1222747200&en=486a776f9f184e9c&ei=5087%0A ''New York Times'' "Massachusetts Proposal Would Repeal Income Tax"]</ref> as Statewide Ballot Question 1.<ref>[http://www.sec.state.ma.us/ele/elepip08/pip081.htm ''Mass Secretary of State'' "2008 Ballot Question 1"]</ref> The 2008 initiative differed from the 2002 initiative in that it provided a one-year transition period with a tax rate of 2.65% before the tax rate would drop to zero. This measure received a higher vote total than in 2002, but lost with 30% of the vote.

In 2010, Howell filed four petitions to create ballot measures to reduce sales taxes, and Republican [[Christy Mihos]], who was running for Massachusetts governor at the time, also sponsored the initiatives.<ref name="Murphy 2009"/> Howell headed the Alliance to Roll Back Taxes, sponsor of a ballot initiative to cut the Massachusetts sales tax from 6.25% to 3.0%, which was on November 2, 2010, ballot as Question 3.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.masslpa.org/content/ballot-initiative-filed-roll-back-sales-tax |title=Ballot Initiative Filed to Roll Back the Sales Tax &#124; MassLPA |accessdate=2009-09-02 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100613012514/http://masslpa.org/content/ballot-initiative-filed-roll-back-sales-tax |archivedate=2010-06-13 }}</ref>  Her group collected and submitted 74,131 approved voter signatures in the fall of 2009, and another 14,023 signatures in the spring-summer of 2010 to qualify the measure. The measure reached as high as 56% in the polls but was unsuccessful.