The group sponsoring a ballot initiative to cut the state income tax in half are calling foul after Secretary of State Al Jaeger changed the measure's summary to reflect a number of errors in the petition.

The petition, circulated by the group Americans for Prosperity, contained a number of errors that were discovered in May. Despite the mistakes, the petition was approved by state officials in August and can now become state law if voters approve it this fall.

So now, instead of simply saying that corporate taxes would be cut by 15 percent and income tax would be cut in half, the ballot summary for Measure 2 adds the caveat: "except for one taxpayer bracket where the reduction would be 45 percent and for two other brackets where some income would not be taxed."

Jaeger said he added the extra language because the ballot summary needs to accurately reflect what the law will do - even if it was not the intent of those who submitted the petition in the first place.

"I can't go on intent," Jaeger said, who will certify the ballot next week unless Americans for Prosperity take the issue to the North Dakota Supreme Court. "I have no authority to change the wording, I can't touch it."

But members of Americans for Prosperity disagree, saying Jaeger should let them fix the errors.

The secretary of state and attorney general approved the original petition language in July 2007 when the errors were not yet known.

"To change (the ballot summary) after the fact, I don't think it's right," said Dustin Gawrylow, spokesman for Americans for Prosperity. "There's a problem and it just seems odd that the secretary of state can change what the secretary of state and attorney general agreed on a year ago."

Jaeger released the updated ballot summary last week, reflecting the errors.

Gawrylow said Jaeger's office should have recognized the errors and allowed the petitioners to change the language.

Jaeger disagrees.

"The fact is (the errors aren't) easy to spot," Jaeger said. "But once it's spotted we can't saying thing different than what it is because what it is, is what it is."

Gawrylow said the errors were made by Americans for Prosperity when drafting the petition.

Only 325 taxpayers out of about 328,000 would be affected by the errors, according to the North Dakota Tax Department.

Jaeger said the ballot language is likely to stay the same unless Americans for Prosperity file suit.

"We do not want to take this to court," Gawrylow said. "But we are examining those options. We hope that it can be resolved peacefully."

If the measure that contains errors becomes law, it would take two-thirds of the Legislature and the governor's approval to correct them.

By the 2015 session, lawmakers would only need a simple majority to change it.

Senate Majority Leader Bob Stenehjem, R-Bismarck, said the Legislature would likely address the errors if the measure is passed this fall, calling them an "obvious numbers mistake."

"The people that put it on the ballot, I think they all believed, thought, knew they were signing a petition that would reduce income tax by 50 percent," Stenehjem said. "And hidden in all those words were some errors and I don't know why those can't be corrected."

(Reach reporter Brian Duggan at brian.duggan@bismarcktribune.com)