Gov. Jeff Landry’s effort to gain greater control over state taxes and spending by rewriting the state constitution won approval Wednesday in the first step of the legislative process.
On a party-line vote, the Republican-controlled House and Governmental Affairs Committee passed House Bill 800, which calls for convening a two-week convention next month to rewrite the constitution. HB 800 advances to the full House for consideration sometime soon.
If it receives the necessary two-thirds vote there, it would advance to the Senate, which has not shown much enthusiasm yet for the idea.
Landry is stepping up pressure on lawmakers to convene the convention, pitching it on talk radio shows on Monday and Tuesday and planning to promote it Thursday at what will be only his second press conference in Baton Rouge since he became governor in January.
So far, Landry is not saying exactly how he wants delegates to redo the constitution if they begin meeting on May 20, as called for under HB 800. The constitutional convention would take place concurrently during the final two weeks of the regular session.
Baton Rouge talk show host Jim Engster asked Landry on Tuesday whether he favors removing from the constitution the $75,000 homestead exemption or the MFP funding formula for K-12 schools. The governor did not say.
Landry did say he wants a freer hand in tax and budget policy next year when the state is facing a projected $530 million deficit, unless lawmakers renew a .45-cent sales tax that expires in mid-2025.
“If you’re going to overhaul the tax code, you have to get some of the things in the constitution out of the way so that you can lay them on the table and have an open and honest conversation about those,” Landry said on the radio. “Next year, if we don’t clean up the constitution when we have a half billion deficit, the only places we’re going to be able to take money from is health care and education…I’d rather have the legislature in a position under which the legislature can look around and spread that pain throughout the budget process.”
On other occasions, Landry has complained about the length of Louisiana’s constitution, one of the country’s longest, saying the state should have a streamlined document so policymakers have a freer hand to make changes.
The convention would have 171 delegates: all 144 legislators and 27 delegates appointed by Landry.
Rep. Beau Beaullieu, the committee chair and sponsor of the legislation, said on Wednesday that the plan is to take protected programs out of the constitution and put them in statute so that legislators can modify them.
“We have a new governor who wants to make bold changes in Louisiana,” Beaullieu said.
Representatives of the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry, Associated Contractors and Builders of Louisiana and the Pelican Institute for Public Policy all spoke in favor of the bill.
Beaullieu faced plenty of pushback from Democrats and several dozen members of the public who put in red cards to express their opposition.
Rep. Candace Newell, D-New Orleans, complained about a rushed process and a lack of transparency, even as she said Louisiana needs a new constitution to replace the one adopted by voters in 1974.
Rep. Delisha Boyd, D-New Orleans, said Landry and the Republican majority ought to take their ideas for changing the constitution on a road show throughout the state to fully engage the public and then call a convention on March 1.
“We’re not privileged to what the transition team is intending to do,” said Rep. Denise Marcelle, D-Baton Rouge.
She was referring to Landry’s transition team, which appears to be formulating the specific ideas to be included in the proposed constitutional convention.
The governor’s office has declined to provide a list of the transition team’s members.
Three former House members served as its co-chairs: Jim Tucker, Loulan Pitre and Neil Abramson. All three, who would be delegates appointed by Landry, spoke in favor of the bill last week and said in interviews that they are not receiving pay for their work.
On Wednesday, Abramson appeared alone and defended the plan.
A New Orleans lawyer and lobbyist, Abramson repeatedly told the committee members that he and others want to limit a constitutional convention to items that would be removed from the constitution, that they don’t want to change existing language in the document.
He told Newell that he’s been engaged in “a collaborative effort.”
Abramson declined to be interviewed afterward.