The March 29 election will allow voters to decide on four constitutional amendments. 

The more complex amendment is number 2 on the ballot. This amendment proposes to rewrite large portions of the Louisiana Constitution article dealing with revenue collections, the state budget process, savings accounts, and taxation rules.

First, if approved, the maximum income tax rate would be reduced from 4.25% to 3.25% and the standard deduction on income taxes for people 65 or older will double.

Secondly, it would remove the cap that limits how much severance tax revenue local governments can receive from the state for oil, gas and other mineral activity on their lands. For Red River Parish this amendment would potentially benefit the parish by more than $12,000,000. In the current law, the parish severance tax is capped at a $1,238,217 return on more than $67,551,917 of severance tax collection. Removing the cap will allow the parish to recoup 20% of severance taxes collected. Red River Parish is one of a handful of parishes to reap the full benefits of this amendment.

 Thirdly, if passed, nearly $2 billion stored in education trust funds would be used to pay down retirement debt for employees of K-12 public school systems and public colleges. The funds would be eliminated, and public school systems would be required to use their retirement payment savings to provide up to a $2,000 permanent teacher pay raise and $1,000 school support worker pay raise. Teachers and support workers have been receiving those payments as one-time stipends that weren’t guaranteed to reappear year after year.

This amendment would also remove several protected trust funds from the constitution and place them in state law, allowing lawmakers to change the rules governing them. Additionally, it will enable local governments to lessen property taxes on business inventory or get a one-time payment if they stop charging those taxes; remove some property tax breaks from the constitution (not the homestead exemption); and make it more challenging to enact new property tax exemptions.

Amendments 1, 3, and 4 on the ballot are limited to singular issues. The first would grant the Louisiana Supreme Court jurisdiction to discipline out-of-state lawyers for unethical legal practices. The third asks voters to approve authority to determine which felony crimes committed by a juvenile may be transferred for criminal prosecution as an adult. If passed, the fourth would change the time requirements for filling a judicial vacancy.