Dates and deadlines

• Early voting period: March 15 – 22
• Deadline to request mail-in ballot: March 25
• Deadline to receive mail-in ballot: March 28
• Election Day: March 29

• Introduction
• Proposed Amendment No. 1
• Proposed Amendment No. 2
• Proposed Amendment No. 3
• Proposed Amendment No. 4
• Appendix

Introduction

Proposed Amendment No. 1

Amendment 1 proposes to establish a new court system at the discretion of a super majority in the state legislature, which the GOP currently enjoys in both chambers. Also included is a red herring provision granting authority to the state Supreme Court to discipline out of state attorneys, something they already have authority to do. 

If this amendment passes, the Republicans can create their own separate courts with magistrates with “limited and specialized jurisdiction.”  The impact of this constitutional amendment is shielded in its ambiguity over what kind of special courts the legislature would be empowered to create.
In Jackson, MS, a similar special court measure that the state government forced on the city disenfranchised majority-minority jurisdictions by superseding their courts and elected officials with state-imposed courts determined by the majority white and Republican state legislature.  We have seen the speed at which the Republicans’ reactionary agenda was put into motion once they secured a super majority to override then Gov. Edwards’ vetoes, and this expanded capacity of the legislature and Jeff Landry to spin up their own courts with their own magistrates will significantly empower their ability to punish whomever they want, deporting or imprisoning people they want to disappear from Louisiana.

Proposed Amendment No. 2

The story of how Amendment 2 came to appear on the ballot starts way back during Louisiana’s regular legislative session in spring 2024. Jeff Landry’s aim during that legislative session, his first as sitting governor in Louisiana, was to hold an undemocratic and rushed constitutional convention. When the Louisiana Senate dashed his hopes of getting it on the ballot during the presidential election, he called for a special session on taxes to start the day after the November 5th election. During that session, the Louisiana legislature passed a 100+ page bill (HB7) that rewrites Article VII (Revenue & Finance) of the Louisiana State Constitution. Once Governor Landry signed HB7 into law as Act 1, it went straight to the Secretary of State, where it has now landed in the hands of voters as a 91-word ballot measure that has been the source of a lawsuit countering misleading language. 

Amendment 2 will ratify Governor Landry’s sweeping tax policy changes. These changes are undeniably regressive; under his plan the poorest Louisianans will pay 13% of their annual income in taxes while the richest pay only 5.6%. The plan, much of which has already been implemented ahead of our vote, changes a graduated state income tax structure to a flat 3% and makes up for the budgetary shortfall through an increase in sales tax. A graduated corporate tax structure is also converted to a flat 5.5%, meaning the state’s most profitable businesses will be paying for less of our shared infrastructure. 

This amendment represents Governor Landry’s attempt to make Louisiana competitive in a race to the bottom with other Southern states that have reduced income taxes and corporate taxes. Republicans frequently describe these policies as “business friendly” and argue that they will make states economically competitive. However, these tax regimes have historically been unsuccessful; businesses frequently cite both under-skilled workforces and lack of educational opportunity for employees’ children as a reason for not investing in the South. 

Amendment 2 continues this cycle of disincentives by creating a spending limit on essential state services such as healthcare and education. In fact, it would liquidate education trust funds for things such as early education, higher education, and remedial instruction for students so local school districts can use that money to pay off part of their debt from teacher retirement. The thought behind this is that school districts could use those savings from Teachers’ Retirement System of Louisiana (TRSL) to cover a $2,000 “pay raise” for teachers and a $1,000 “pay raise” for school support staff instead of funding educator pay raises through the traditional means of the minimum foundation program (MFP) formula used by the state board of education and the legislature. Ballot language that educators will receive a bump in pay has also been challenged by the recent Amendment 2 lawsuit- a lawsuit that includes current Louisiana teachers as plaintiffs. 

Passage of Amendment 2 would only make permanent the temporary stipends that teachers and school support staff have received the past two school years and ultimately not result in any change in pay from what they currently make. There is also no guaranteed funding tied to those “pay increases,” especially for many of the public charter schools, many of which are located in New Orleans, that do not participate in retirement systems like TRSL. Nevertheless, this has not prevented the state’s two major teachers’ unions from backing Amendment 2, who have been assured by Governor Landry and legislators that they will find ways to use other state funds to cover pay increases for teachers in all school districts and charter schools.

This amendment will continue to undercut our educational system without bringing the new jobs and opportunities we desperately need.

Proposed Amendment No. 3

Currently, our state constitution defines a list of crimes for which juveniles can be tried as adults, including charges such as murder, manslaughter, and armed robbery. The only way to add more crimes to that list is through amending the constitution and the requisite statewide vote. If Amendment 3 passes, this list of crimes will be removed from the constitution and the state legislature will be given the power to decide which “certain felony offenses provided by law” would qualify for adult prosecution and therefore adult prison sentences. The super-majority Republican control of both chambers of the state legislature would have the ability to change these rules over time without constitutional amendments and voter approval. Given our state legislature’s “tough on crime” policies, this would certainly result in sending more of Louisiana’s youth to prison. 

Children in adult prisons have a much higher risk of suicide and long-term harm. It can cost up to $155,000 to incarcerate a child for a year, while Louisiana currently spends less than $14,000 per year per student for education costs. Increasing youth incarceration is dangerous to children, expensive, and ineffective; Louisiana has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world while still having one of the highest crime rates in the country. Rather than passing Amendment 3, we encourage legislators to focus on education and crime prevention initiatives instead of sending our kids to prison.

Proposed Amendment No. 4

This amendment in many ways is a corollary to Amendment 1 to create new courts for specialized jurisdictions and the ability to fill these seats as soon as possible by requiring special elections at the “earliest election date”. The language would allow for these new judicial seats to be put on a ballot during low-turnout off-cycle dates, whereas the current law allows for up to twelve months for the special election to be scheduled (preferably for a major election year or mid-term cycle).

Appendix

Recommendations vs. Endorsements

An endorsement represents a direct material investment from our membership for a candidate, including volunteers and securing the support of the National DSA when applicable. Our endorsement requires the candidate to be a member of our chapter, and the process is initiated with a resolution signed on by at least 1% of our membership in good standing at a general membership meeting. The candidate will attend a Q&A interview curated by members, and requires a majority vote from our membership after chapter-wide debate. Our chapter has endorsed candidates under this endorsement process for US Congress, School Board, State House, Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, and Democratic State Central Committee. 

National DSA endorsements are initiated by the chapter and require a local endorsement, a review from the DSA National Electoral Commission, and is approved by the National Political Committee, DSA’s national leadership body. Devin Davis and Margee Green have received national endorsements in the past. 

In contrast, a recommendation can be initiated by any member by presenting a recommendation resolution at one of our monthly general meetings. These recommendations require the consent of a majority of members in a quorate meeting with at least 10% of membership in good standing. Recommendations will be made explicit in voter guides, but do not devote member time and resources to a given campaign as a chapter priority like endorsements do. A lack of recommendation in a given race should not be interpreted as condemnation or praise of any particular candidate(s), but that there is, if anything, no majority opinion on that candidate among chapter membership. The recommendation process has been employed multiple times since it was established by our members in February 2021.

We hope to connect issues in the races to larger discussions in our city and world, and give a better understanding of the positions and processes of our city and electoral system. This guide is written and researched by members working with the Voter Guide Working Group of the New Orleans DSA and is approved by elected chapter leadership. If you’ve made it this far, join our chapter if you haven’t already and help us write our next voter guide.