26-02-2025
Civil liberties groups oppose LA constitutional amendments on March 29 ballot
NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — Governor Jeff Landry is pressing voters to say 'yes' to four amendments to the state constitution.
The amendments on the March 29 ballot include issues like juvenile crime and the state's tax code.
The amendments are generating quite a buzz, even sparking Say No to Them All, Y'all campaign.
Voters will be asked to approve Constitutional Amendment 2 to rewrite the state's tax code. Some legislators are promising teacher pay raises, but according to Jan Moller, the executive director of Invest in Louisiana, the language isn't clear cut.
Former New Orleans Police Department sergeant sentenced in wire fraud case
'What this does is it requires or asks local school boards to pay teachers a little more, and it would take away a stipend that the teachers have been getting for the last two years,' explained Moller. 'So, teachers are getting the same amount of money as they are right now, if this passes.'
Amendment 3 expands the list of crimes in which juveniles can be transferred to adult prisons. Critics, like Kristen Rome, the executive director of the Louisiana Center for Children's Rights, say state law already allows prosecutors to charge juveniles who commit serious crimes as adults.
'This particular amendment takes out the transparency in that process and just creates a blanket pathway for the legislature to decide on its own, without any checks and balances, without any folks weighing in what can be transferred,' said Rome.
Amendment 1 gives the legislature the power to create new courts, and Amendment 4 allows judicial vacancies to be filled on the earliest possible election date.
Revitalization efforts continue in Metairie's Fat City with second building demolition
Political Analyst Jeff Crouere says voters must digest a lot of information in a short period of time and is predicting a low voter turnout.
'When you're talking about redistribution of how the money goes, when you're incentivizing teachers and you're giving teachers a pay raise, that could generate support among those groups and get to that hopeful goal of the 20% turnout.'
Early voting for the March 29 election begins March 15 and will last through March denied for man accused in crash that left two dead in Gretna
US consumer confidence drops by most since August 2021
Crockett delivers blunt message to Musk: 'F— off'
WATCH: Officers cut open man's 'narco wig' at Colombian airport to reveal cocaine
Man allegedly kicks CBP supervisor three times in face at port of entry
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
