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PHOENIX — Backers of what could be the largest tax hike in state history filed suit Wednesday to put their proposal back on the November ballot.

Some of the petitions turned in to the Secretary of State's Office do not technically comply with all of the legal requirements for initiatives, attorney Charles Blanchard acknowledged in paperwork filed in Maricopa County Superior Court. But he said the mistakes are technical.

He said many of the errors appear to be with the way the signatures of the petition circulators were notarized. Blanchard said that should not invalidate the will of people who signed the measure and want to vote on it.

He also said that both the Secretary of State's Office and the Maricopa County Recorder's Office improperly rejected various other signatures.

Blanchard is hoping to persuade Judge Thomas Dune-vant III to rule that enough of the disqualified petitions and signatures should be counted to get the count of valid names up to 95 percent of the 153,365 legally required to put Proposition 203 on the ballot.

That 95 percent figure, extrapolated from a random sample, is considered sufficient because there is not enough time before the ballots have to be printed to check the validity of every signature.

The measure would boost the state sales tax rate from 5.6 percent to 6.6 percent to raise $42.6 billion during its 30-year life. Most of the money would go to new highways and roads, with some set aside for mass transit projects ranging from van-pool service to a train between Tucson and Phoenix.

Gov. Janet Napolitano, who backs the tax proposal, said Wednesday she is confident the courts will put the measure on the ballot. And she said it is important for voters to approve it.

"It's something Arizona really needs," she said. Transit improvements are necessary, she said, to deal with current traffic congestion and the growth that will occur in the next three decades.

Napolitano said it is also "a job creator at a time when Arizona can use some job creation."