Jeff Landry isn’t the first Louisiana governor to storm into office with plans to overhaul the state’s constitution and rewrite its tax structure. As the inimitable Jim Beam of the Lake Charles American-Press reminds us, Buddy Roemer steered a broad budget and tax-reform plan through the Legislature early in his first term, only to see it rejected by voters, who also rejected a plan to rewrite the constitution.  

Legislators in 1992 after a constitutional convention rejected an amendment like the one in Landry’s Item 1 on the upcoming special session agenda. It is proposing amendments to the state constitution dealing with a long list of taxing and other changes. Observers in 1992 said 62% of the voters rejected the first amendment on their ballot, which didn’t have a number, and six others just to be sure they killed the right one. Voters also rejected a tax reform plan by the late-Gov. Buddy Roemer in 1989. They will be asked to approve Landry’s plan on March 29, 2025.

Landry is asking lawmakers to adopt a wholesale rewrite of the constitutional provisions that govern taxes and spending – and to make sweeping cuts to taxes paid by wealthy individuals and large corporations – during a three-week session that starts on Nov. 6. 


ESA delay

Louisiana’s new plan to subsidize private-school tuition and other educational expenses has hit a snag, as legislators have thus far refused to sign off on a contract with the private vendor chosen by the state education board to operate the program. The Times-Picayune | Baton Rouge Advocate’s Patrick Wall reports that the launch of the Education Savings Account program could be delayed thanks to a dispute between the winning bidder and its spurned competitor. 

While the exact reason for the holdup is unclear, lawmakers on the committee say they still have concerns about the chosen vendor, Odyssey, which was founded in 2021 and currently operates education-grant programs in just three states. … One source of lawmakers’ concerns appears to be a lobbyist for ClassWallet, one of the companies that Odyssey beat out to win the contract. Lawmakers and state board of education members said the lobbyist circulated a memo linking to news reports and audits about challenges Odyssey reportedly faced in the other states where it has contracts.

U.S. economy grows, but might be slowing

America’s economy continued to grow during the third quarter, with gross domestic product increasing at a 2.8% pace even as there are signs that things are starting to slow down. The Washington Post’s Abba Bhattarai reports that housing investments are slowing and imports are rising, and that households are putting less money away in savings than they were earlier in the year:

By many accounts, the economy is bustling: Companies are hiring, wages are rising, and Americans are spending heartily. Quarterly GDP growth during Biden’s presidency has averaged 3.2 percent. That’s compared with 2.5 percent annualized growth in the first three years of Trump’s presidency, before pandemic-related disruptions. After raising interest rates aggressively in response to covid-related inflation, the Federal Reserve last month began cutting borrowing costs and is expected to do so again next week.

Surge in early voting

Louisiana’s 10-day early voting period ended on Tuesday with a record number of citizens flocking to the polls to cast their ballots for president, congressional seats and a smattering of local races including a hotly contested mayor’s race in Baton Rouge. Alyse Pfeil of The Times-Picayune | Baton Rouge Advocate notes that this year’s early voters were whiter, more Republican and more suburban than four years ago. Early voting ticked up sharply in Jefferson, Lafayette and Caddo Parishes, among others, but fell in Calcasieu and Orleans. 

A record 849,784 people showed up at the polls to cast ballots during early voting in Louisiana this year. And on Tuesday, the final of ten days that make up Louisiana’s in-person early voting period, over 100,000 people visited polls across the state — the highest number of early voters in one day both this year and in 2020. An additional 110,777 Louisianans have cast absentee ballots so far, bringing the total number of those who have already voted in the 2024 presidential election to 960,561. That’s 84,636 more votes than were cast during the same timeframe ahead of the 2020 presidential election. The current tally of voters who have cast ballots is just under a third of Louisiana registered voters.

The New York Times’ Nate Cohn looks at the critical role voter turnout will play in next week’s presidential vote, as Donald Trump’s campaign is relying on “irregular” voters while Kamala Harris is more likely to benefit from high-turnout voters. 


Number of the Day

3.5% – Percentage of Louisiana state legislators who are moms with children at home. Nationally, about 8% of legislators are female or nonbinary with children under 18 at home. (Source: Vote Mama Foundation via Axios New Orleans)