A closer look at the proposed Louisiana constitutional amendments

While the elections for U.S. representatives and senators holds center stage in the fall elections, several parish School Board seats are contested and some local municipalities will be electing officials, voters will also be faced with important decisions that could affect them and future generations for years to come.

This article will attempt to explain the six proposed constitutional amendments so voters can decide if any should become the law of the land or become political footnotes.

The election is Nov. 6. Early voting begins Oct. 23.

The six constitutional amendments are:

(1) Do you support an amendment to prohibit a convicted felon from seeking or holding public office or appointment within five years of completion of his sentence unless he is pardoned?

Due to a court ruling in 2016, convicted felons can seek and hold a public office in Louisiana. This amendment would prohibit convicted felons, unless pardoned, from seeking or holding a public office until five years after the completion of their sentences. It would not prohibit a convicted felon from being employed by the state or a local government.

Voters approved a constitutional amendment in 1998 that barred convicted felons from seeking or holding office for 15 years following the completion of their sentences. That amendment was struck down by the Louisiana Supreme Court on Jan. 27, 2016, due to an error in the official ballot text in 1998. The court ruled that “what the citizens voted on was not what the Legislature enacted,” and noted that the Legislature could “once again address this issue in order to rectify this troublesome result.”
This amendment is the Legislature’s attempt to do that.

2) Do you support an amendment to require a unanimous jury verdict in all non-capital felony cases for offenses that are
committed on or after January 1, 2019?

This amendment would require the unanimous agreement of jurors to convict people charged with felonies. As of 2018, Louisiana requires only 10 of 12 jurors for a felony conviction. The amendment would not affect juries for offenses committed before Jan. 1, 2019.

At this time, Louisiana and Oregon are the only states that do not require a unanimous jury to convict a defendant of a felony. Oregon does require unanimous decision in murder trials.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a 1972 Oregon case that the 6th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution requires a unanimous jury to convict a person in federal court, but the 14th Amendment does not extend that requirement to a state criminal trial. The court was fractured, 4-1-4, with one group of four saying neither the 6th nor 14th Amendments requires unanimous verdicts in state or federal court, the other group of four saying unanimous verdicts are required in both state and federal courts and Justice Lewis Powell in the middle, who wrote the court’s opinion.

(3) Do you support an amendment to permit, pursuant to written agreement, the donation of the use of public equipment and personnel by a political subdivision upon request to another political subdivision for an activity or function which the requesting political subdivision is authorized to exercise?

Political subdivisions are presently prohibited from loaning or exchanging equipment and personnel. This amendment would allow political subdivisions of the state, through a written agreement, to exchange public equipment and personnel for an action or function the receiving subdivision is authorized to exercise.

The City of Denham Springs was reprimanded by the Legislature in 2016 for loaning a vacuum truck and operator to other government agencies without an intergovernmental or cooperative endeavor agreement. The Legislative Auditor said the municipality had violated the state constitution, “which prohibits the donation of public funds.”

The proposed amendment was unanimously passed in both chambers of the Legislature -- no small feat in a session that saw legislators bitterly divided on many issues.

(4) Do you support an amendment to remove authority to appropriate or dedicate monies in the Transportation Trust Fund to state police for traffic control purposes?

This amendment would end the dedication of revenue from the Transportation Trust Fund (TTF) to state police for traffic control.

The TTF holds revenue from state taxes on gasoline and motor fuels. At this time, TTF revenue can be used for constructing and maintaining highways, roads, and bridges; for the the Statewide Flood-Control Program; for ports, airports and transit; for State Police traffic control purposes; and for the Parish Transportation Fund for parish governments.

After it was reported that past governors had used the TTF to cover deficits in the State Police budget, Gov. John Bel Edwards eliminated the practice. However, future governors and legislators would have the option to resume the practice unless a constitutional amendment is passed.

(5) Do you support an amendment to extend eligibility for the following special property tax treatments to property in trust: the special assessment level for property tax valuation, the property tax exemption for property of a disabled veteran, and the property tax exemption for the surviving spouse of a person who died while performing their duties as a first responder, active duty member of the military, or law enforcement or fire protection officer?

This amendment provides an added consideration in property taxes for homes owned by disabled veterans and the surviving spouses of first responders, active duty military, law enforcement and fire protection personnel who died in the line of duty.

(6) Do you support an amendment that will require that any reappraisal of the value of residential property by more than 50%, resulting in a corresponding increase in property taxes, be phased-in over the course of four years during which time no additional reappraisal can occur and that the decrease in the total ad valorem tax collected as a result of the phase-in of assessed valuation be absorbed by the taxing authority and not allocated to the other taxpayers?

This amendment would require tax increases from reappraisals resulting in a property's value increasing more than 50 percent to be phased in over four years rather than immediately. The amendment would also prohibit taxing authorities from adjusting the tax rate to make up any lost revenue from the phase-in requirement.

There is currently no phase-in provision for property tax increases due to reappraisals, which occur every four years. An assessment increase of more than 50 percent between four-year appraisals is uncommon, so the amendment, if adopted, would not be expected to be applied very often.

OTHER PROPOSITIONS

In addition to those proposed amendments there is also a state proposition to allow fantasy sports contests, subject to legislative regulation and taxation, within the parish. Fantasy sports contests would be permitted in those parishes approving the measure and be prohibited in those parishes that reject the measure.

“Fantasy sports contests” are defined as simulation sports games played through the internet or mobile devices in which participants create teams based on the current rosters of actual amateur or professional sports teams and win prizes and awards.

Under the bill creating this proposition, the state Gaming Control Board is empowered to license and regulate fantasy sports contests.