The overwhelming failure of Amendment 2 on Saturday will be a game-changer for the upcoming fiscal session. Jeremy Alford, the editor at LaPolitics.com, says had it passed, it would have been a relatively quiet session. Now, not so much.
“We’re going to hear debates again over the income tax, which lowering that was a major part of this Amendment. We’re going to hear a lot about sales tax. Definitely, 100 percent,” Alford said.
Alford says this vote should have little to no impact on Governor Landry’s support among his staunchest supporters.
“Many of his supporters probably weren’t clear or, frankly, didn’t understand what was in that Amendment. There were a lot of moving pieces to that. It wasn’t just tax and finance. They had a teachers’ pay raise and some other things,” Alford said.
Alford says with Saturday’s loss, Landry joins a long list of governors who have tried and failed to significantly alter the state constitution.
“Huey Long, at the height of his power, couldn’t do it. Earl Long tried, Buddy Roemer tried, and now we see this effort from Jeff Landry, and it has followed suit,” Alford said.
In fact, Alford says the only modern governor to succeed was Edwin Edwards, who managed to replace the entire constitution back in 1974.
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