There are four proposed changes to the state constitution on Saturday’s ballot and Amendment 2 has received the most attention. The measure makes several changes to Article Seven of the state constitution, which deals with revenue collection and taxation. Governor Jeff Landry has traveled the state urging voters to support it…
“It reduces Louisiana’s income tax rate,” Landry said. “Gives us the ability to further reduce the income tax rate. It will give us the ability to increase the funding for infrastructure. It give teachers a permanent pay raise, and school staffers a permanent pay raise.”
Teacher unions support Amendment 2 because it would make a temporary two-thousand-dollar pay raise permanent by paying down retirement debt.
Landry has said this election is a defining moment as passage of this Amendment Two will end the cycle of boom-and-bust cycles and set the state towards the path of prosperity…
“Why does other states in the South enjoy prosperity and median income rises in those states and not Louisiana,” said Landry. “This is the beginning to that cure.”
Invest Louisiana is one of several groups who oppose the passage of Amendment Two. The group’s director Jan Moeller says this amendment comes from a 115-page bill passed by the legislature last November and the ballot language does not explain the extensive changes that will be made to the constitution.
“I think you can ask 144 legislators and none of them could tell you everything that is in this rewrite, and that I think alone is a reason to take a pause, Moeller said”
Moeller finds it interesting that some conservatives oppose the bill because it would make it easier to remove tax breaks for churches.
“People on the religious s right have been up in arms because it narrows the non-profit tax exemption for churches, and that is something that didn’t even come up during the debate,” said Moeller.
Landry says the amendment preserves the exemption for religious organizations and he would never support anything that would harm religious organizations.
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