2026 will be a busy year for ballot questions. Among several making their way through the process of certification is the “Protect Water and Nature” initiative that could bring more than $100 million dollars to natural resource conservation. According to a December 1 article in The Boston Globe, the measure would “help preserve natural areas and create more outdoor recreational spaces in Massachusetts.”
How would it work? Globe writer Chris Van Buskirk explains, “If passed in Massachusetts, a fund created by the proposed ballot question would receive half the state taxes collected for outdoor-related sales in its first year of implementation.
From the second year onward, the fund would receive all taxes generated by the sale or use of sporting goods, recreational vehicles and golf courses. The fund would not take sales tax revenue earmarked for the MBTA or a school construction trust fund.
The state collected more than $9 billion in total sales and use taxes in fiscal year 2025, data shows. The campaign behind the ballot question said consumers in Massachusetts spent nearly $2.5 billion in the sporting goods category in 2022, the most recent year for which data is available.
Supporters of the question said they collected more than 100,000 signatures ahead of the ballot initiative deadline last month. More than 90,000 of the signatures were certified by city and town clerks, according to the campaign’s spokesperson, Andrew Farnitano.
The ballot question would allow the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs to spend tax money on protecting drinking water, rivers, streams, lakes, coasts, farms, forests and connectivity between open spaces, as well as on lands and natural resources of indigenous cultural significance.”
Updates to follow.