Two teachers and a pastor are trying to get a ballot measure that seeks to rewrite portions of the constitution removed.
Their lead attorney, William Most, says Amendment 2 is misleading to the extent that it violates state law.
Most says whereas voters are led to believe that all teachers would get a permanent pay raise, that’s not necessarily the case.
“Some teachers would get flat pay; and once you get into the fine print, you can see that some teachers would get a pay cut actually,” Most says.
Most also says the ballot measure claiming that the property tax exemption of churches and religious groups would be retained is misleading.
“It’s substantially narrowing it so that some property owned by churches and religious groups might be subject to taxation in the future in a way that they currently are not,” Most says.
Most says another misleading component relates to trust funds for health and education.
“The ballot language says they would be modifying certain constitutional funds — certian trust funds for health and education,” Most points out. “But those funds are not being modified, they’re being deleted entirely.”
Most is urging the legislature to try again before putting this or any constitutional amendment before the voters.
“If the Legislature would like to do it right and present the voters something that complies with the law and the Constitution, they’re certainly welcome to do so,” says Most. “But they can’t try and pack 109 pages of changes into one sentence and expect voters to be able to vote intelligently on it.
“Voting only works if what is being asked of the voters is transparent and truthful about the changes that would be made,” Most continues. “And since we don’t have that here, we really have a failure to comply with the basic rules that allow a democracy to function.”
Gov. Landry issued a statement in response to the lawsuit.
“This lawsuit attempts to deny citizens their right to vote to grant teachers a permanent pay raise, lower income taxes for seniors, reduce the maximum income tax rate, and limit the growth of state government,” Landry says in his statement. “Amendment 2 was thoroughly debated and passed by a bipartisan supermajority of both houses of the Legislature. I am confident that voters across Louisiana will see through this political charade and pass Amendment #2 overwhelmingly on March 29.”
Here’s ballot the language for Amendment 2
Do you support an amendment to revise Article VII of the Constitution of Louisiana, including revisions to lower the maximum rate of income tax, increase income tax deductions for citizens over sixty-five, provide for a government growth limit, modify operation of certain constitutional funds, provide for property tax exemptions retaining the homestead exemption and exemption for religious organizations, provide a permanent teacher salary increase by requiring a surplus payment to teacher retirement debt, and make other modifications? (Amends Article VII, Sections 1 through 28; Adds Article VII, Sections 29 through 42)
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