House Governmental Affairs has approved the legislation calling Louisiana to convene a constitutional convention on May 20th. Governor Landry wants 171 delegates to streamline the current constitution. Former state representative Neil Abramson says that can be accomplished by moving items out of the constitution and into state law.
“Not changing anything, just moving it from one section to another, so these conversations can be had, they can be had effectively and efficiently,” Abramson said.
The vote was nine to five in favor of the constitutional convention and the vote went down party lines. Baton Rouge Democrat Denise Marcelle asked what’s the big hurry in holding a constitutional convention next month.
“How is that we want to rush a constitutional convention down the throats of the people of Louisiana without their input,” Marcelle said.
Marcelle also complained about a lack of transparency as the public is in the dark about what changes could be made to the state’s constitution.
“When we do something of this magnitude, I think we need to include the public, to get public input in it,” Marcelle said. “What is the rush?”
Governor Landry has scheduled a press conference at 9 AM Thursday to discuss the proposed constitutional convention.
Landry says moving certain sections out of the constitution and putting them into state law, gives legislators more flexibility when there is a budget deficit, preventing deep cuts to health care and higher ed.
“I rather have the Legislature in a position to have the opportunity to look around and spread that budget pain throughout the budget pain process and if you could do that the amount of pain would be completely negligible,” Landry said.
The constitutional convention bill heads to the House floor for more discussion.
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