If adopted, Initiative 1634 would prevent local governments from imposing or collecting any new tax, fee, or other assessment on certain grocery items after January 15, 2018. This restriction would prohibit any new local tax, fee, or assessment of any kind on the manufacture, distribution, sale, possession, ownership, transfer, transportation, container, use, or consumption of certain groceries. Initiative 1634 would also prohibit any increase of existing local taxes, fees, or assessments on these grocery items after January 15, 2018.

Local governments covered by this initiative are counties, cities, and towns, as well as other municipal corporations and local taxing districts. Covered grocery items would include any raw or processed food or beverage, or any ingredient, intended for human consumption. This would include, for example, meat, produce, grains, dairy products, nonalcoholic beverages, spices, and condiments, among other things. Covered groceries do not include alcoholic beverages, marijuana products, or tobacco.

Initiative 1634 would not prevent the State from imposing new taxes on groceries. It would not prevent local governments from imposing or collecting a new tax, fee, or assessment that is generally applicable to a broad range of businesses and business activity, so long as it does not impose a higher tax rate on groceries or impose a higher tax rate based on a classification related to groceries. Initiative 1634 would not prohibit a local tax, fee, or assessment on alcoholic beverages, marijuana products, or tobacco. Initiative 1634 would not restrict counties' and cities' existing authority to impose local sales and use taxes. Initiative 1634 would not restrict local governments' existing authority to impose other taxes on transactions involving non-grocery items.