LIMITATIONS ON GOVERNMENT

The American Revolution was spurred in part by the desire to limit the power of the British government to tax American colonists. Americans have long believed that government serves its citizens, not the other way around. To ensure that citizens are the masters of government, not its slaves, we recognize the need to place limits on government from time to time, to protect ourselves from an overzealous government. Some of the states, through Legislatures or citizen initiatives, have adopted limits on the government's power to tax and spend, and on the number of terms elected officials may serve. We have highlighted the states that have adopted limits in one or more of these areas, and included the Constitutional or statutory language of those limits.

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