The Pelican Institute is hosting a public forum at the Old State Capitol Tuesday aimed at getting a framework in place for a potential future state constitutional convention.
CEO Daniel Erspamer says interest is growing in reforming the state constitution, and more politicians come on board to the idea every year. The only problem is folks don’t exactly know what that would entail, “From where you should hold it to how should you pay people to what the campaign finance laws be to who should be delegates, how should they be elected or selected.”
Louisiana’s constitution is thousands of pages long and reportedly the 3rd largest in the nation. Erspamer says that means newly elected officials only have control of about 11 percent of the state budget.
“Louisiana’s challenge is that we don’t so much have a state constitution at the moment, as a set of laws that we have given constitutional authority.”
Critics argue a convention would mean the elimination of dedicated funding for K-12 education and other vital interests. Erspamer says the forum will hopefully lay some of those concerns to rest.
“When we talk about removing constitutional dedications it’s not to suggest that those programs shouldn’t receive funding, but that they should go through the same process as everything else.”
The forum will begin at 1130AM and run through 6:15 PM.
