The Richard H. Headlee Papers document the activities of the principal leader of the "tax revolt" in Michigan in the 1970s and 1980s. The papers include material on the major organizations Headlee founded or was affiliated with, the voter initiative which resulted in passage of Proposal E (the "Headlee Amendment") restricting growth in property taxes, and Headlee's campaign for governor in 1988.
The papers were received in two major accessions. The first, received in 1988, has been arranged in three series: Taxpayers United for Tax Limitation, Taxpayers United Federation, and Topical Files. The second accession, received in 1994, has been divided into six series: Correspondence, Headlee for Governor (1988), Headlee Initiative, Taxpayers United for the Michigan Constitution, Visual Materials, and Clippings.
Richard H. Headlee was born in Fort Dodge, Iowa in 1930. He gained political experience as an advisor to Michigan Governor George Romney from 1966 until 1968, before returning to private business. He was first named president of a small industrial firm and, in 1972, was selected to be president of the Alexander Hamilton Life Insurance Company in Farmington Hills, Michigan. After the failure of the 1976 tax amendment campaign, Headlee was asked to assume the chairmanship of Taxpayers United.
Headlee conducted a vigorous and successful campaign across Michigan and won approval for Proposal E in November 1978. Also called the "Headlee Amendment," Proposal E limited the increase of taxes to the growth of personal income of Michigan residents.
In 1979 the Taxpayers United organization merged with the Taxpayers Federation of Michigan. The new organization was named Taxpayers United Federation, Inc., and its primary purpose was to lobby state legislators in Lansing for a favorable interpretation and implementation of the "Headlee Amendment."
Headlee's political activities continued through the 1980s. He mounted an unsuccessful campaign for governor in 1988 on the Republican ticket. His organization, Taxpayers United, was more successful, running a number of statewide campaigns to further reduce taxes and government spending and shift power to local governments from the state. Most notable of these was the "Headlee Initiative," a statewide ballot initiative to limit state spending increases to the rate of inflation. The governor and state government and legislature opposed this initiative and, in a controversial decision, the State Board of Canvassers found that enough signatures were invalid to deny the petition's passage. Taxpayers United took the Board of Canvassers to court, and ultimately won, placing the initiative on the ballot in 1992. The initiative became state law after the elections that November.
