Here are the 4 Louisiana constitutional amendments

NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — Voters will be deciding on four amendments to the Louisiana state constitution on the Dec. 7th ballot. This article aims to break them down, so that you can know what you’re voting for.

Amendment 1 asks, “Do you support an amendment to allow the Supreme Court to sanction a judge upon an investigation by the Judiciary Commission, and provide that the recommended sanction shall be instituted by the Judiciary Commission or by a majority of the Supreme Court, and to provide for the appointment of five members of the Judiciary Commission?”

The Louisiana Judiciary Commission investigates allegations of misconduct by judges and recommends punishments to the Supreme Court. The current makeup of the commission is nine people; three judges, three lawyers and three regular citizens.

“It would also allow the Supreme Court to ask the Judicial Commission, make a formal request that they do an investigation right now. Maybe it’s something informal, but there’s no formal way for the Supreme Court to say, hey, we think this is an issue. Would you please investigate it?” said Steven Procopio, President of PAR Louisiana.

Some believe the commission moves too slowly, sometimes taking years on an investigation.

The proposed change would expand it to 14 members with the five additional members being appointed by the Louisiana Speaker of the House, President of the Senate and the governor. There is no clear language in the proposed law for the requirements of those five members.

“The pushback on that is that it’s a pretty balanced committee because judges and attorneys are not necessarily always in agreement, and citizens are a very important part of it, but they don’t necessarily understand all the details. So they’re an important part, but they shouldn’t have, you know, the most members out of all of them,” said Procopio.

Some also believe that the appointments from the governor and legislature could inject politics into the investigation process. Also, allowing the Supreme Court more authority to start up investigations raises concerns over due process, since they are the ones who determine the discipline for any wrongdoings.

Voters will vote yes or no on the amendment.

Amendments 2 and 3 aim to slow down the budgetary process in the Louisiana legislature. This comes after the 2023 regular session ended in shouting and confusion after the operating budget came out of a closed-door conference with hefty changes and only moments to pass it before the clock ran out, triggering a special session to pass a budget.

Amendment 2 would require 48 hours between a conference committee report being released and any official votes.

“You have to wait 48 hours to vote on a budget bill. You have to have the amendments and a summary document that’s telling you what’s going on. So both of those things have to happen, you know, for the 48-hour clock to even start,” said Procopio.

Amendment 3 is similar, in that it would allow the legislature to extend the regular session in increments of 2 days, up to 6 days, to allow for time to review the budget bills before voting. Right now, if the budget is not passed by 6 p.m. on the final day, a special session must be called. Those for this amendment say it would be a cost savings to not call the additional session.

“While these are both spiritually, I think, linked, they’re not legally linked. So two can pass and three can fail and vice versa, and it doesn’t affect the other one,” said Procopio.

Those against the amendment believe the legislature should prioritize their time better to naturally have the time to review the budget bills within the 60 or 45 days of session.

“The argument for both of them is very similar: legislators ought to get their business done in the time allotted,” said Procopio.

Amendment 4 looks to change the process for how debt on property taxes is handled when homes have to be auctioned off.

Under current law, when someone does not pay their property taxes, they have to put their home up for auction.

Someone then buys the house and for three years the owner can try and pay back the debt and interest to get their house back.

The proposed change would make it so someone could buy the lien on the house and the homeowner has three years to pay that down.

“If you owe $30,000 on it, someone buys that debt for $30,000 at an auction. Then the government gets the money and essentially the government’s out of it because now it’s between the original owner and the person who now owns the lien,” said Procopio.

Under the proposed change, the house wouldn’t go up for auction until the 3 years are up.

Part of the reason for the proposed change is that since the government gets the leftover funds from the auctioned house under the current system, it could be unconstitutional based on some cases in other states.

“Under systems like Louisiana’s, it hasn’t specifically applied to Louisiana yet. The government can end up recouping more money than is actually owed. So if you only owe $30,000 in the home, but the government ends up getting $50,000, that’s sort of an unconstitutional taking from a homeowner or any property. It doesn’t have to be a home, it can be a business,” said Procopio.

Those against the amendment claim it could make the process take longer and could deter industry who buy up these properties.

latest Posts

Source

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)