Delegates meeting to rewrite Louisiana’s constitution wouldn’t touch the $75,000 homestead exemption or state funding for K-12 schools under a deal that Gov. Jeff Landry and House legislative leaders have reached.
The agreement was spelled out in an amendment the House approved on Wednesday to House Bill 800, which calls for delegates to meet on May 20 at a special convention to begin the redrafting. It also called for not using private money for the convention.
Though House leaders wanted to pass the amended House Bill 800 in full on Wednesday, they can only do so with a two-thirds vote, a level of support the measure did not have this week.
Instead, they will again take up the legislation on Tuesday, Rep. Beau Beaullieu, the sponsor, told his colleagues.
Landry has been calling lawmakers up to his fourth floor office in the Capitol to win over their votes.
House legislative leaders said privately on Wednesday that Landry believes he will have the necessary 70 votes, including at least two Democrats.
One of them mentioned is Rep. Robby Carter, D-Greensburg, who was given a plum position by Landry to chair the Judiciary Committee. Carter declined to discuss his vote.
Beaullieu’s HB 800 calls for a convention to have 171 delegates and run concurrently with the final two weeks of the regular legislative session that ends on June 3. The delegates (all 144 legislators and 27 appointed by Landry) could vote to extend the convention.
But on Wednesday, Senate President Cameron Henry continued to raise questions about Landry’s plan, saying in an interview that senators would prefer to have the constitutional convention begin in August since they have until Aug. 23 to pass the proposition in time for the Nov. 5 ballot. The Senate would take up the bill only after it passes the House.
Henry, R-Metairie, also questioned once again whether lawmakers would have enough time to address the normal crush of business at the end of a regular session while trying to draft a new constitution.
“The timeline becomes tight,” he said.
Asked about the House decision to carve out the homestead exemption and the state K-12 funding known as the MFP, Henry said it might win the support of some senators but said once Landry and legislative leaders say they won’t move certain items out of the constitution, “you open the floodgates to others.”
For example, Landry has been negotiating with the Louisiana Sheriffs Association on whether the delegates would agree in the constitutional convention to keep an important item for them: annual supplemental pay by the state for local law enforcement officers and firefighters.
Beaullieu, R-New Iberia, told the House that a new constitution is needed to give the Legislature a freer hand to make budget cuts to address a projected $500 million deficit projected next year. He noted that the constitution protects certain types of spending – K-12 spending among them – so budget cuts typically hit hardest on colleges and universities and public health.
“We have been listening to the voices of the people of Louisiana,” Beaullieu told his colleagues.