Between the Lines: A Deeper Look at Amendment 2

Amendment 2 on the March 29 statewide ballot would wipe out a rainy-day state savings account, and trust funds that finance critical education programs. It would limit Louisiana’s flexibility to respond to changing economic conditions, and help cement an upside-down tax structure where people with low incomes pay higher state and local taxes than those at the very top. The amendment is being presented in language that is misleading, and fails to capture the true extent of what voters are being asked to consider. A new issue brief from Invest in Louisiana takes a deeper look at Amendment 2. 

“The bill that created Amendment 2 is more than 100 pages long, but the language that voters will see on their ballots contains less than 100 words,” said Paul Braun, state budget and tax policy analyst for Invest in Louisiana and author of the brief. “The deeper you dig into Amendment 2, the worse it gets.”  Contrary to Amendment 2’s ballot language, the proposal does not include a permanent teacher pay raise. Teachers and support staff would not see any more money in their paychecks, they just would not lose a temporary pay bump that state lawmakers have provided the last two years.

How would SNAP benefit cuts affect Louisiana?

A GOP budget resolution that’s moving through Congress calls for cutting $230 billion from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), more commonly known as food stamps. A reduction of this magnitude is impossible without eliminating the 2021 update to the Thrifty Food Plan, the formula that calculates SNAP benefits. New analysis from the Urban Institute lays out the broad ramifications of eliminating the update:

Urban analysis shows that if the Thrifty Food Plan update is rolled back, SNAP benefits will fail to cover the cost of a modestly priced meal in every county in the US. As a result, families who receive SNAP benefits would have to cut back on the amount of food they eat or turn to cheaper, less healthy options. These rollbacks would be particularly hard on the nearly 4 in 10 SNAP recipients who qualify for the maximum benefit because of very limited resources. In the wake of steep cuts, food insecurity and financial hardship will increase and health outcomes will worsen.

The Urban Institute provides estimates for how every state and county (parish) would be affected. A modestly priced meal would cost 52% more than the maximum SNAP benefit in Louisiana as a whole, while costing 69% more in Orleans Parish. 

Cuts to USAID have implications for world and Louisiana 

President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s attempts to gut the U.S. Agency of International Development could have far-reaching consequences. While the federal judiciary has so far blunted efforts to dismantle the agency and nix payments to partners, there’s still uncertainty on future moves by the administration. David R. Hotchkiss and Mai P. Do of Tulane University, writing in a guest column for the Times-Picayune | Baton Rouge Advocate, explain how targeting USAID is affecting Louisiana’s economy: 

 USAID’s collapse disrupts key economic sectors, including agriculture, manufacturing and health innovation, with Louisiana’s agricultural industry already feeling the effects. Louisiana rice farmers, who relied on USAID’s Food for Peace program, now face financial uncertainty and potential job losses. In 2024 alone, USAID purchased over $126 million worth of U.S. rice. As The Advocate | The Times-Picayune recently reported, farmers are bracing for lost revenue as USAID, a major buyer of American agricultural exports, is dismantled.

The authors explain how Tulane’s global health research could be hindered: 

Tulane University’s Celia Scott Weatherhead School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine — the oldest school of public health in the U.S. — has played a critical role in strengthening health systems in low- and middle-income countries by supporting schools of public health, training professionals and generating evidence to inform health policy. However, recent terminations of USAID-supported projects now threaten Tulane’s ability to sustain these partnerships, cutting off critical training programs, weakening disease surveillance efforts and disrupting collaboration with global health partners.

Federal rent credit could reduce wealth gaps 

Owning a home and building equity is one of the best ways to create wealth. But Black and Hispanic households, due to decades of racist policies, are more likely to be renters than white households. A new blog from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy explains how a federal rent credit would help reduce wealth gaps, and provides specific policy proposals that could achieve that goal:

To get at this systemic problem policymakers could design a well-targeted refundable tax credit for low- and moderate-income renters that bases eligibility on both renter status and income. This would ensure that a higher share of the credit will flow to low-wealth individuals than if the credit was solely based on income or renter status. … Rent, of course, is typically paid monthly, so the credit could be refunded monthly like the enhanced CTC in 2021. The other option is making it a yearly refundable credit that comes at tax time, like the current CTC and EITC. 

Number of the Day

530,000 – Number of Louisianans who would lose their health care if Congress cuts Medicaid by one-third, a move that some GOP members are considering to partially offset the massive cost of their proposed tax cuts. (Source: Joint Economic Committee – Minority report via States Newsroom)