The Advocate: Jeff Landry advisors want Louisiana constitution changes, ’more flexibility’ for lawmakers

Changes would require the governor and legislators to convene a constitutional convention.

BY TYLER BRIDGES | Staff writer | Jan 31, 2024

GOP megadonor Lane Grigsby supports overhauling the state's constitution. 

A transition committee led by one of the Republican Party’s biggest donors wants to remove dozens of provisions from the state constitution that provide such safeguards as preventing cuts in K-12 school spending.

Having those provisions in the constitution prevents changes the Legislature needs to make in how Louisiana spends its money and taxes its citizens, says the Constitutional Reform Policy Council, chaired by megadonor Lane Grigsby, a Baton Rouge business owner.

The transition committee, one of 14 that released recommendations last week to guide Gov. Jeff Landry’s administration, wants Louisiana mostly to be governed by laws approved by legislators that are not in the constitution. Statues can be changed by state lawmakers, but constitutional amendments require a public vote.

For decades, Grigsby has funded conservative candidates in an attempt to dramatically change Louisiana’s governing structure.

Grigsby may have his best chance now with Landry and a Republican Legislature in power. But neither the new governor nor legislative leaders have said yet whether they favor establishing a special legislative body to rewrite the state’s constitution, as the transition committee favors. Landry has released the names of those who led his transition committees but not a full roster of members.

If Landry and the Legislature do authorize the convening of a constitutional convention, the transition committee wants delegates to “reduce the length and scope of the constitution to ensure only foundational principles of government remain,” the committee said. “This will give lawmakers, from the state legislature to local governments, more flexibility and autonomy to respond to the needs of today’s citizens.”

Louisiana’s current constitution was written by delegates in 1973 and approved by voters in 1974 with the backing of then-Gov. Edwin Edwards.

The transition committee said it has been amended too many times – more than 200 times in all – since then.

“It is clear that it is too easy to amend the foundational document of our state’s government,” the transition committee said. “This process should be reviewed and reformed to make it more of a hurdle to amend the constitution.”

Over the years, individual legislators have repeatedly sought to establish a constitutional convention, but these efforts have failed over fears about exactly what the new constitution would contain.

That’s a legitimate concern, said Jeremy Alford, author of a book on the creation of the 1974 Constitution. It is entitled, "The Last Constitution: Louisiana’s Greatest Political Generation and the Document that Defined Them All."

“Unless policymakers find new ways to hamstring future delegates, there’s no reason to believe we’ll see anything different than what happened before – a strong-willed body making its own decisions,” Alford said in an interview.

In all, the transition committee wants laws to be in statute, not the constitution. Changing laws in statute requires approval only of the Legislature, while changing the constitution requires approval of legislators and then voters statewide.

One law that could be taken out of the constitution and be put in statute gives homeowners a $75,000 homestead exemption on their property. Another protects civil service employees against arbitrary action by government leaders.

Because the constitution prevents legislators from reducing spending on K-12 education and in several other areas, when lawmakers make cuts, they chop the budgets of public health care and colleges and universities – two big-expense areas that are not protected by the constitution.

Mary-Patricia Wray, a lobbyist and political strategist, said any effort to rewrite the constitution could result in a privatization of government services.

“Since constitutionally protected funding for healthcare and education remains the lion's share of our state budget, this discussion should primarily be seen as one focused on access to public funds by the private sector and whether or not things like constitutionally protected retirement systems will remain a staple of Louisiana's number one employer – government – or not,” Wray wrote recently.

Peter Robins-Brown, executive director of Louisiana Progress, a left-leaning nonprofit in Baton Rouge, agrees with the Landry transition committee that the current constitution is overly complex.

“But my fear is their fix and what that would do to education, health care, infrastructure and all the public services that people need in Louisiana,” Robins-Brown said. “It could lead to privatizing public services. That almost never works out well for the average working person.”

If lawmakers were to pass legislation creating a constitutional convention, a key question they will have to address is who serves as the delegates.

In 1972, would-be delegates ran in each of the 105 state House districts, and the result was a mixture of state legislators and ordinary citizens. The governor also appointed 27 delegates, for a total number of 132, Alford said.

Grigsby would like the 144 state Senate and House members to serve as delegates.

Either way, he noted that the proposed constitution that emerged would take effect only if it won a statewide vote.