Some Louisiana constitutional convention costs are up in the air

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry delivers his address to state lawmakers on opening day of the regular legislative session, Monday, March 11, 2024, at the Louisiana State Capitol in Baton Rouge. (John Ballance/The Advocate, Pool)

State fiscal analysts have not yet been able to come up with a price tag for the proposed constitutional convention Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry has pushed since the beginning of March. 

“The cost relative to the expenses of convening a constitutional convention cannot be accurately estimated,” fiscal analyst Tanesha Morgan wrote in a fiscal report issued last week on the convention’s potential expenses. 

The event would be expected to cost at least $62,829 to cover a $179 daily payment made to Landry’s 27 appointed convention delegates during its two-week run. A state audit of the convention could also cost an additional $20,000 to $30,000, depending on the scope of the work, according to the report.

But several other potential expenses – such as materials, security and legislative staff compensation – haven’t been worked out yet. 

House Bill 800 calls for the convention to be held from May 20 to at least June 3, which overlaps with the last weeks of the Louisiana Legislature’s regular lawmaking session. Legislators could choose to extend the convention until as late as July 15 if needed, though there doesn’t seem to be much interest in meeting past the end of the regular session. A two-thirds vote in each chamber is needed before the event can move forward. 

Landry has pressed lawmakers to convene a convention to revise and shorten the state constitution, though he refuses to say what provisions he wants to remove. 

“It’s not really about what I support. It’s what the Legislature deems should stay in [the constitution],” Landry said when asked last Thursday what specific items he wants to take out. “My preference is the will of the Legislature.” 

“Again, that’s a great question for the Legislature,” the governor said when asked a second time at a press conference last week what he specifically wants removed from the constitution. 

But Landry doesn’t appear to have the Legislature’s support yet to make a constitutional convention happen. House Bill 800 isn’t expected to have a full House vote until next week, and it would then have to go to the Senate for additional vetting.

“We have no idea what’s in the constitutional convention coming up,” Rep. Larry 

Bagley, R-Stonewall, said Monday during a budget hearing.

Lawmakers have also brought up other logistical challenges, such as how the state would fit the 171 legislators and gubernatorial appointees in the Louisiana House chamber. The room was designed to comfortably hold only 105 legislators on its floor.

Among the big operational questions to be worked out is how the legislative staff would be paid for the convention – if at all. The bill calls for the Legislature’s workers to provide support for the event, but many of those employees normally earn overtime for extended hours. How and if they would be paid more hasn’t been included in the plans laid out in the convention bill. 

Several Democratic legislators also raised questions during a hearing Monday about what type of private funding might be used. 

The constitutional convention bill contains language that would allow outside money to help fund the event, but Rep. Beau Beaullieu, R-New Iberia, the legislation’s sponsor, said in an interview he expects to remove the private funding provision before next week. 

“I would imagine that might come out of the bill,” Beaullieu told House members Monday. 

Landry has also promised the constitutional revisions would not fundamentally change state law because the governor would only support moving items out of the constitution and into state statute, where they would remain in effect. 

That transfer, however, makes it easier for Landry and lawmakers to scuttle or alter those laws in the future. 

Legislators can only change or strike out constitutional provisions with voters’ permission on a statewide ballot. But they could vote after the convention to make permanent changes to constitutional provisions they move into statute. Public approval on those changes wouldn’t be needed. 

Landry has said the convention’s overarching goal is to do “wholesale tax reform.”

Many conservative legislators want to lower or eliminate the state income tax but have to find a significant revenue source to replace the $4.6 billion in revenue it produces annually. One way to make up that money would be to assess the state sales tax on a broader base of items. 

Currently, the Louisiana Constitution prohibits the state from taxing food for home consumption, prescription drugs and residential utilities, which collectively adds up to a sales tax exemption of $1.1 billion. 

Those sales tax bans might be easier to lift if they were taken out of the constitution and put into state statute. 

Landry and lawmakers also expect to face an estimated $558 million budget deficit starting July 1, 2025, when an automatic state sales tax cut takes effect.

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