What to know about the 4 constitutional amendments on the March 29 ballot

Louisiana voters will see four constitutional amendments on the March 29 ballot. These measures address issues like criminal justice, teacher pay, taxes and more. They’ve received mixed reviews from various organizations and advocacy groups.

Here’s what we know about each amendment.

“Do you support an amendment granting the Louisiana Supreme Court jurisdiction to discipline out-of-state lawyers for unethical legal practices in the state of Louisiana, and to grant the legislature the authority to establish trial courts of limited and specialized jurisdiction?

Amendment 1 pertains to the creation of specialty trial courts and the Louisiana Supreme Court’s authority to discipline out-of-state-lawyers.

The Louisiana Association of Business and Industry (LABI) supports the amendment.

“This amendment establishes a process for the creation of specialized courts, such as business courts, to handle complex business matters,” the organization said in a statement.

The ACLU of Louisiana, which opposes the measure, said there are already laws in place to discipline out-of-state-attorneys. “ It's really just enabling legislators to undermine our judicial system and empowering them to create kangaroo courts that are in their own best interests,” said Sarah Whittington, an advocacy director at the ACLU of Louisiana.

The political advocacy group Better Louisiana also opposes Amendment 1.

“Instead of giving the legislature the ability to create these new courts in a regional or statewide jurisdiction, it'd be better to know what the real goal is. What kind of court are we trying to create? What is the problem we're trying to solve?” Chief Policy Officer Barry Erwin asked.

Erwin said before new courts are created, caseloads need to be reduced for existing courts.

“So, for us, we think we probably ought to just kind of hold off on this until we get more information,” Erwin added.

“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?”

If passed, Amendment 2 would be the most significant revision of the state’s constitution since 1974. And since it revises Article VII of the State Constitution, there are multiple issues at play.

If it passes, Amendment 2 would:

• Cap the income tax rate to a flat 3%. This is a positive for individuals with incomes greater than $12,501. But this would negatively impact individuals making $12,500 or less because their income tax rate was 1.85%. The Department of Revenue’s website has more information on individual income tax rates and brackets. 

• Double the standard deduction for seniors 65 and older, from $12,500 to $25,000.

• Reduce the corporate income tax to 5.5% and eliminate the corporate franchise tax.

• Limit new tax exemptions by requiring a two-third majority in both chambers of the legislature.

• Merge the state’s rainy-day state savings account with another trust

• Liquidate three education trust funds to go towards paying off teacher retirement debt, with the intention that once that debt decreases it allows local school systems to then use those savings to make the current teacher pay stipends permanent. 

• Removal of some property tax exemption protections from the constitution into statute to allow the legislature to make changes as they see fit versus having to go before voters in the form of a constitutional amendment. 

While some entities are promoting Amendment 2 as a tax cut for Louisianans, critics refer to it as a tax shift because it reduces the tax burden of the wealthy and corporations and forces the state to be more reliant on sales tax. In anticipation of its passage, lawmakers increased the state sales tax to 5%. That went into effect on Jan. 1.

The average teacher in Louisiana made less than $54,000 during the 2022-23 school year, well below regional and national averages.

State officials agree teachers should be paid more, but Gov. Jeff Landry and lawmakers have been unwilling to give schools more money for salary increases.

Amendment 2 would make the stipends educators have received for the last two years — $2,000 for teachers and $1,000 for support staff — a permanent part of their salaries, but the mechanism is complicated.

“How about paying down the state’s retirement debt and using those savings to give our teachers a much needed permanent salary increase,” Landry said in a video last week urging voters to pass all four amendments.

If Amendment 2 doesn't pass, teachers and support staff could get a pay cut if a stipend isn’t approved again this year.

During a webinar, Paul Braun, an analyst for Invest in Louisiana, a nonpartisan think tank that opposes all four amendments, called Landry’s claims misleading.

“This is not a teacher pay raise,” Braun said.

As costs rise, wages stagnate, Louisiana teachers ask: Can I afford to keep doing this?

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State leaders decided again this year to not give teachers a permanent pay raise, opting for a one-time stipend instead. Many agree that educators are underpaid, but point to Louisiana’s looming deficit.

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Braun’s bigger concern is something he said isn’t addressed in the ballot language: “What’s being sacrificed to make this all work?”

The state plans to empty several trust funds in a “gambit,” Braun said. This would save schools money, which they would then use to pay teachers.

The savings won’t be enough in some districts and won’t apply to charter schools. Landry has said the state will make up the difference, but that isn’t guaranteed.

Meanwhile, Braun said the trust funds themselves raise tens of millions of dollars for schools each year.

“That would be gone,” he said. “That’s a recurring revenue source that we’ve relied on for years in the state of Louisiana.”

The money pays for child care and early education for 1,600 kids, supports special education programs in K-12 schools and helps support the state’s colleges and universities.

Landry has said he plans to backfill that money, but Braun said that will be hard to do since the amendment also places a stricter limit on how much the state can spend on recurring expenses, including education.

The state’s two largest teachers unions support the amendment, though their leaders say they’d prefer schools receive the money directly through the state’s funding formula.

The Louisiana Policy Institute for Children has voiced concerns over the potential loss of early education funding but hasn’t taken a stance on the amendment.

Under current law, religious organizations are guaranteed property tax exemptions by the state constitution. Those exemptions include properties used for worship, education, charitable work, and ministry.

Amendment 2 would remove these guarantees, shifting tax policy decisions to state lawmakers, who could choose to alter or eliminate exemptions with a two-thirds vote.

State Rep. Julie Emerson, R-Carencro, who carried the legislation during the November Special Session says existing property tax exemptions will remain in state statute, however others disagree.

Among them is Rev. Tony Spell of Life Tabernacle Church in Central. He warns that churches would no longer be shielded from future tax changes if Amendment 2 is approved.

Spell is best known for violating COVID restrictions during the pandemic by continuing to hold church services despite an Executive Order banning large gatherings. The Louisiana Supreme Court later ruled on Spell’s behalf.

“ In the big picture, what it [Amendment 2] does is take certain things that are constitutionally protected right now, and either gets rid of them altogether or moves them from the Constitution into statute where they still have some protections but not constitutional protections,” said Erwin.

Jan Moller, executive director of the policy group Invest in Louisiana, says Amendment 2 is regressive and places the tax burden on the poor and rewards the wealthy with larger tax cuts.

“This amendment is being presented to voters in language that is misleading. The 91 words that voters will see on their ballot don’t come close to capturing the true extent of what they are being asked to consider,” said Moller.

Amendment 2 also faces litigation on the grounds the ballot language is biased and misleading. The suit has been filed on behalf of a pastor and two teachers.

“Do you support an amendment to provide the legislature the authority to determine which felony crimes, when committed by a person under the age of seventeen, may be transferred for criminal prosecution as an adult?”

(Link to Kat article)

Voters also will consider Amendment 3, which would grant lawmakers more authority to expand the list of crimes for which teenagers can be criminally charged as adults.

Proponents argue the change is needed to address youth crime. Opponents contend the adult court, jail and prison system lacks rehabilitative services that can change kids' long-term outcomes and reduce their chances of re-offending.

The amendment would change the state Constitution, which lists out more than a dozen specific felony charges for which kids under age 17 can be prosecuted as adults, such as first- and second-degree murder, rape and armed robbery.

Adding new crimes to that list now requires the Constitutional amendment process — i.e., approval from Louisiana's voters — as well as lawmakers updating state statutes that deal with children, explains Hector Linares, a professor in the youth justice section of Loyola University New Orleans' law clinic.

If approved, Amendment 3 scrubs the list of specific crimes, giving legislators the power to add new felonies kids could face adult penalties for by simply changing state law, without a sign-off from the general public. They would still need a two-thirds vote from legislative colleagues.

In committee hearings in November, lead sponsor Sen. Heather Cloud said the initiative would give lawmakers more flexibility to address what she called an "increased level and severity" of crimes by young people. (Cloud did not immediately return an interview request.)

"So we're not changing the law. We're simply removing its antiquated and nearly immovable nature that it has, because it's locked down in the Constitution," she said at that time.

Gov. Jeff Landry and the state's Republican Party have endorsed the amendment.

Amendment 3 is opposed by groups including the Louisiana Center for Children's Rights, the ACLU of Louisiana and the Power Coalition for Equity and Justice (a civic engagement group focused on communities of color) and some former corrections professionals, with many contending it would add to the state's already-high incarceration rates.

"The various issues (mental health, houselessness, food insecurity, etc.) that our children face cannot be solved with new laws that continue to jail and imprison even younger children," Renard Bridgewater, communications manager for Louisiana Center for Children's Rights, wrote in a column this month.

The proposal adds to a period of increased focus on how kids are treated in Louisiana's criminal justice system, including a rollback of the age of "criminal responsibility" from 18 to 17, which took effect last April.

That change is already having effects within the system, reports say, including teens awaiting trial in adult jails and facing adult charges for nonviolent offenses.

Linares says continued attention to how courts handle children is a response to a "brief and temporary spike" in youth crime during the social disruptions of the pandemic, which he said has revived a "super-predator, tough-on-crime mindset."

"It's very sad, because we lose all of the benefits that youth advocates and youth justice reformers for decades have spent so much time on," he said.

Amendment 3 also has drawn a legal challenge from a group of voter plaintiffs and the advocacy group Voice of the Experienced, which is led by formerly incarcerated people.

The lawsuit also takes aim at Amendment 1. It alleges fault with the process by which the bill that led to Amendment 3 was passed, and asks for a court to block both amendments from being presented to voters or taking effect.

"Really, this is the legislature expanding their own power in extremely broad ways that we don't have full access to at this point. We don't totally know what their intentions are at all," Emily Ratner, an attorney working for the plaintiffs, said.

The suit names secretary of state Nancy Landry as a defendant. A spokesperson for that office said they are "unable to comment on ongoing litigation."

“Do you support an amendment to provide for the use of the earliest election date to fill judicial vacancies?”

LABI also supports Amendment 4.

“They believe its intent is to reduce election costs and ensure stronger voter turnout for judges’ races,” the organization said in their statement.

The Vote No on All Y’all campaign said passage of Amendment 4 is an opportunity for Baton Rouge politicians to get their friends elected when fewer voters are paying attention. Instead of waiting for the earliest election date with the potential for greater turnout, judicial vacancies could be filled by a much lower percentage of voters, the group said.

Links to various organizations and their analysis of the Constitutional Amendments

Guide to the Constitutional Amendments - Public Affairs Research Council - Louisiana

2025 Amendment Guide One Pager