BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — The push for a constitutional convention before the fall election is not over yet. A Republican megadonor and Gov. Jeff Landry ally is making a pitch to lawmakers on a framework for constitutional changes.
While time is running short for the legislature to pass changes to the state constitution and get it in front of voters this November, Landry's allies are not giving up the fight.
Lane Grigsby chaired the transition committee focused on the constitution. He echoes the governor's message that some funds, tax exemptions, and agencies should be removed from the constitution and put into policy so lawmakers can make changes without putting them to a vote of the people.
“Policy should not be in the Constitution. Everybody wants to leave their portion in the Constitution,” Grigsby told the Baton Rouge Press Club.
Lawmakers had a chance to pass the framework for a convention during the regular session that ended in June. It passed overwhelmingly in the House but stalled out in the Senate as lawmakers faced concerns about what would be changed and possible burnout from nearly six months straight of being in Baton Rouge.
Grigsby recently sent a draft of the proposed changes to all 144 legislators, including suggestions to alter how funding for K-12 schools is calculated, known as the MFP. He gave one example of taking policy out of the constitution where it is protected: the homestead exemption. He said he is not for doing away with it but believes parishes should have control over it if they allow it to manage their own finances.
“If it were a law and our legislature said we will from here on out allow for local option of homestead exemptions, then of course, parishes could say we really want this, let's change our exemption process. And they do it,” Grigsby said.
There have also been talks for months of opening up constitutionally protected money to give lawmakers more portions of the budget to move around to handle fiscal issues.
“Nine out of every $10 in our $50 billion state budget is already spent before the legislature has walked into the building,” Grigsby said.
In the draft of the constitutional changes that could be discussed, Grigsby also has changes to the income tax and sales tax exemptions on the table. The document includes comments from the revenue secretary about getting rid of the income tax. That would create an even larger budget gap than the $500 million projected.
“You don't always have to replace a revenue stream if you can cut costs,” Grigsby said.
Lawmakers would have to call themselves back into session to set up the rules for a convention. They’d have to wrap up their work by the end of August or early September to get it on the fall ballot. Grigsby said getting it on the same ballot as the presidential election is key to getting the most voters involved in approving or voting down changes the legislature may pass.
