Gov. Jeff Landry revealed his plan for rewriting Louisiana’s 50 year-old Constitution and WWL's Newell Normand has some advice.
Don't rush it.
"Before we start tinkering with any of it there should be robust discussion and debate," Normand cautioned. "This goes to process, this goes to fairness this goes to getting everyone's voice heard."
The current plan has nothing in place for individual citizens to get involved in the editing process, and it leans too heavily into appointees of the governor, Normand said. And "they haven't forecast anything about where they intend to go," Normand added.
The constitutional process begn last week Rep. Beau Beaullieu, R-New Iberia, submitted a house bill that outlines the process for overhauling the current constitution.
If it passes, the plan calls for 171 delegates, made up of 144 state lawmakers and 27 other people selected directly by Landry to run the constitution-writing process.
Private donors would be allowed to pay for the convention’s activities, per the bill, though they would be required to disclose their names and the amount of their donations. Public funding could also be used, according to the bill.
Normand saw a lot of problems and missing information, for instance: Will private donors fund it? Public dollars? Private funding to pay for a constitutional convention would be problematic, Newell said.
"We ought to fund it ourselves."
No matter what happens, voters would still have to approve any new constitution after it's written by the convention. It would be on the November ballot and could go into effect in 2025.
The bill calls for the constitutional convention to start two weeks before the Legislature’s current law-making session ends on June 3. But why the rush?
Newell said voters will need months to read the proposed changes and debate them before they're asked to vote on them.
