Voters in a handful of states are deciding today on measures that will have a major impact on their states’ ability to fund critical services, while other states are trying to restrict the ability of citizens to put referendums on a statewide ballot. They include an Arizona measure to cap grocery sales taxes, a proposed wealth tax in California, and two proposals in North Carolina that would make it much harder to raise revenues. Clara Wilson of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities offers a helpful rundown of tax- and budget-related measures facing voters this Election Day:
These restrictions could become especially consequential as states face growing fiscal pressures. Following historically deep cuts to health care and food assistance in the harmful 2025 Republican reconciliation law, states will face new SNAP costs in 2027, along with Medicaid work requirements and restrictions on provider taxes that will hinder states’ ability to raise revenue needed to finance their Medicaid programs.[1] At the same time, many states face budget challenges stemming from their own recent policy choices, including widespread income tax cuts (a number of states enacted additional tax cuts this year), costly private school voucher programs, and a growing number of property tax cuts and caps.[2] Together, these pressures will make it much harder for states to invest in K-12 education, child care, health care, and other public services that help people and communities thrive.
Currently 19 states (not including Louisiana) give citizens the ability to place statutes or constitutional amendments on the ballot without going through the Legislature. This process has allowed states to raise the minimum wage and expand Medicaid, even when politicians were opposed. But voters in four states – California, North Dakota, South Dakota and Utah – face ballot questions that would restrict such citizen initiatives.
With states facing growing budget pressures, voters must decide whether to preserve their ability to fund essential services and respond to future needs or impose restrictions that could worsen budget shortfalls and limit future decisions about taxes and public investments. These choices will have lasting impacts on states’ ability to support public schools, health care, and other services that families and communities rely on.
The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) offers its own guide to tax-related ballot questions
Louisiana voters have 10 proposed constitutional amendments on their state ballots. Invest in Louisiana’s guide can be found here.
Data center accountability measures lack specifics
Gov. Jeff Landry’s attempt to rebrand data centers as “digital factories” could be a sign that voters’ anxiety about the AI revolution has reached Louisiana. As the Times-Picayune | Baton Rouge Advocate’s Faimon Roberts points out, data centers are not, in fact, factories (even though they qualify for state tax breaks aimed specifically at manufacturers).
Trying to give a new, positive name to something people hate is a trick as old as time. Like calling a stretch in the gulag “re-education” or calling waterboarding “enhanced interrogation.” Or the Atlanta Falcons “good at football.”
And while Landry promised that future data center developers would have to make “meaningful commitments” to local communities by doing things like improving the power grid and investing in workforce programs, Roberts notes that the promises came with no specifics.
There are no bench marks, no set performance measures, no investment thresholds. The document leaves it up to the companies to develop their own “measurable commitments,” and to provide “detailed attestation” of how they will live up to these demands. What’s more, Landry and LED haven’t said whether these new standards will apply to the data center companies that have already inked deals with the state that include big tax breaks.
Helping college students fill basic needs
Nearly 6 in 10 college students experience some form of food or housing insecurity, making them less likely to graduate on time or finishing at all, and contributing to lower grades. One way colleges are addressing this problem is with Single Stop technology, which uses a screening tool to connect students with benefits and local resources. A new policy brief from the Urban Institute evaluated these tools and found that they’re only effective if people know about them.
From our evaluation, we learned that basic needs technology tools are helpful pieces in the puzzle of addressing college student basic needs insecurity. However, they are not full solutions. They require participation from at least a few college staff members, building awareness of the tool college-wide, and an understanding of the types of resources the tools are more and less likely to help students access.
Look to wind, not nuclear
The state Public Service Commission recently signed off on a plan that lets utilities spend up to $2 million of ratepayer money to study new nuclear reactors, and Gov. Jeff Landry is angling for the Pelican State to host a federal “nuclear campus” that would include storing high-level nuclear waste offshore. Madelyn Smith of the Southeastern Wind Coalition writes in the Illuminator that Louisiana would be better off investing in wind power as it searches for zero-emission energy sources.
Current politics favor nuclear and shun offshore wind. In August, RWE gave up the Gulf’s only federal offshore wind lease. Louisiana’s previous goal of 5 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2035, set by former Gov. John Bel Edwards, has been quietly shelved. However, politics are constantly changing, and Louisiana should be ready when the window of opportunity for offshore wind opens again. Louisiana has spent a century proving it can be a leader in generating offshore energy. The engineers, shipbuilders, vessel crews, and fabricators who built the offshore oil and gas industry are already building wind projects for other states. I hope that one day we can leverage this expertise to build offshore wind off our own coast.
Number of the Day
20% – Percentage of families that reported being behind on their loan payments in 2025. That’s up from 12% in 2022 and is the highest percentage since 2010. (Source: Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances)