Legislation to hold a Constitutional Convention next month will be heard in House Governmental Affairs today. Bill sponsor New Iberia Representative Beau Beaullieu said Governor Jeff Landry’s transitional team will describe what the convention will entail.
“What items will stay in the constitution and what items will be placed into statute. We’re going to get a good picture in committee on exactly what the transition team is looking for and what they envision for the future of Louisiana,” said Beaullieu.
The last time the state’s constitution was revised was 1974 and for this convention, Beaullieu said there won’t be any huge changes, he said the plan is to move items from the constitution and put them in statute to give the legislature more flexibility. For example…
“Next year for instance when we are having a fiscal shortfall, we can have all the tools necessary to be able to effectively smooth out any kind of shortfall from a financial standpoint and not have to raise taxes,” said Beaullieu.
Currently, when there’s a budget shortfall it falls on the backs of healthcare and higher education and the convention hopes to change that.
Beaullieu said the lawmakers will get a jump start on the convention and some of the proposed changes will be heard in respective legislative committee meetings.
“And that way we can get public input, we can get legislative input. We can make recommendations back to the transition team. And that way when we start on May 20th, we have a more efficient convention and can knock everything out in a couple of weeks,” said Beaullieu.
The convention is scheduled to begin May 20th and the regular legislative session ends June 3rd. The session could either end early or the convention could coincide with the session.
