The December 2024 Constitutional Amendments

Why, oh, why do they always do this to us? Here we go again with the December 2024 Constitutional Amendments. Every time there’s an election (and even sometimes when there isn’t), the population of Louisiana is bombarded with requests to modify our state’s Constitution. In November, Louisiana overwhelmingly decided to lock up even more money as a dedicated fund. What’s funny about that decision is we are now dedicating non-existent Greene New Deal money flowing from the Biden administration. That’s right, now that Trump is in office, it’s not likely that we’ll be plopping power-generating windmills on Louisiana’s outer continental shelf. And yet…

The legislature’s official December 2024 Constitutional Amendments guide is in their Proposed Constitutional Amendments document.

December 2024 has four more amendments.

Nothing will be on the ballot in many places around Louisiana except for these four amendments. Why they always put these on low-turnout elections is anyone’s guess. Considering there’s a mayor’s race runoff in East Baton Rouge, it’s highly likely that Baton Rouge voters may contribute significantly to the fate of these four amendments. Let us continue down the weary path, with the hope that someday, the legislature will write an amendment that the legislature governs the state without constantly badgering us. Wouldn’t that be nice?

Here’s the short-list, along with our recommendations:

1. YES – The Morris amendment
2. YES – The Bacala Amendment (1/2)
3. YES – The Bacala Amendment (2/2)
4. NO – The Greg Miller Amendment

Amendment 1 – The Morris Court Reform Amendment.

We like The Morris Amendment, named after its author, Jay Morris. We know from experience that it’s tough to reform anything associated with lawyers, especially our courts. So, Morris is making some changes that aren’t necessarily in a head-on fashion. In short, the amendment gives our elected legislators and the governor a seat at the table. It also grants the Supreme Court additional disciplinary powers.

Here’s the ballot language:

Do you support an amendment to allow the supreme court to sanction a judge upon an investigation by the judiciary commission, to provide that the recommended sanction shall be instituted by the judiciary commission or by a majority of the supreme court, and to provide for the appointment of five members of the judiciary commission?

From the article:

We’ve all heard about rogue judges. They can harass the good guys while letting the bad guys go free. Someone needs to do something about that—and that somebody could be you. We already have a system in place, but it could use a shakeup. Adding more people to the Judiciary Commission of Louisiana seems like an odd place to start. However, giving the legislature and governor direct appointments might get the ball rolling.

Also, getting the Supreme Court more directly involved in judicial misconduct may be impactful. This is one of the changes you’ll be deciding on December 7th. Trying something new is a good idea. If you agree, this constitutional amendment is for you.

For more on the Morris Amendment, check out our article: The Morris Amendment.

Amendments 2 & 3 – The Bacala Fiscal Reform Amendments

Tony Bacala has been growing on us as a solid fiscal conservative. He authored two amendments to address some specific procedural problems in our legislature in recent years. Regular readers may recall our article, This could never happen – but it happened, which showed this problem up close. In summary, the Senate historically sits on spending bills until the last moment. Then, they suddenly amended and sent them back to the House, with only a few moments to go into the legislative session. The practice is often referred to as “jamming the house.” In short, the Senate has figured out how to take control of the appropriations process that the House should control.

These amendments require 48 hours to read appropriations bills and allow the legislature to extend a session up to six days – stifling the Senate’s quick deadline scam. While many argue that the Senate will learn new tricks, these changes are worth trying. Here’s the language of the Bacala amendments, in respective order:

Do you support an amendment to require that the legislature wait for at least forty-eight hours prior to concurring in a conference committee report or amendments to a bill appropriating money?

Do you support an amendment to allow the legislature to extend a regular session in increments of two days up to a maximum of six days if necessary to pass a bill appropriating money?

You can read more details about the Bacala Amendments in our article: The Bacala Amendments – fixing the spending cap problem.

The Miller Tax Sale Amendment

This amendment effectively uses a recent, common-sense court ruling in another state as an excuse to change things in our system that have nothing to do with the court ruling. How these things get through our legislature is anyone’s guess. In short, it removes our tax sale system from the Constitution and allows our trustworthy legislature to rewrite the whole thing. The two legislators behind the change (Greg Miller and Jay Luneau) are low-ranked on our Senate Scorecard, which makes us question the motives of such an ambiguous change.

Here’s the ballot language.

Do you support an amendment to eliminate mandatory tax sales for nonpayment of property taxes and require the legislature to provide for such procedures by law; to limit the amount of penalty and interest on delinquent property taxes; and to provide for the postponement of property tax payments under certain circumstances?

For more information on Greg Miller’s constitutional amendment (such as it is), see our article: Amendment 4—Changing our entire tax sale system.

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