Four constitutional amendments on ballot
Published 6:00 pm Monday, September 23, 2019
Louisiana voters on Oct. 12 will decide the fate of four proposed amendments to the state constitution. The Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana (PAR) has once again done an independent, non-partisan review of the 2019 proposals.
Amendment 1 would create a property tax exemption for certain goods destined for the Outer Continental Shelf; an area in U.S. waters 200 miles beyond the state jurisdiction that for Louisiana is three miles.
Amendment 2 adds schools to the Education Excellence Fund, which is a component of the Millennium Trust that was created in 1999. Its purpose is to support excellence in educational practice only to elementary and secondary schools and special schools.
Amendment 3 deals with the jurisdiction of the Board of Tax Appeals. Individuals and businesses that are unhappy with a decision they believe is in error by the state Department of Revenue or local taxing authorities can appeal to the board. It is the state’s version of a tax court.
Amendment 4 establishes a New Orleans tax exemption for affordable housing. Property tax exemptions are listed in the state constitution and state law or local ordinance cannot add additional exemptions.
PAR has been doing primers on constitutional amendments for the past four decades. It says this year’s lineup is especially challenging as the four in question are among the more arcane (understood by few) proposals citizens have faced.
The amendments require a two-thirds vote of the Louisiana Legislature and a majority vote at the polls, and the governor can’t veto them. PAR said the state constitution “has evolved from a concise foundational document to a lengthy throng of regulatory minutia (the small, precise or trivial details of something).”
The relatively new state constitution was adopted in 1974. PAR said voters have since been asked to decide on nearly 300 proposals, or about seven per year on average since the changes began. Of those, 195 have been approved, and more than half of them are on Article VII, which is the finance section.
The council begins discussion of each amendment by saying what votes for and against would do. It then talks about the current situation, the proposed change and arguments for and against. The guide can be found at www.parlouisiana.org.
PAR has provided guidance to those seeking to revise the state constitution, but its guide is educational and doesn’t recommend how to vote. The American Press this week will discuss each amendment and make our recommendations for each one.
