Constitutional amendment hopes to give voters right to end dedications
13th April 2015 · 0 Comments
By Christopher Tidmore
Contributing Writer
Facing a $1.6 billion deficit, JP Morrell is attempting to pass legislation, which many consider an impossible feat, but yet he might just succeed.
As the legislative session kicks off on Monday, April 13, perhaps the most critical piece of legislation is his constitutional amendment, SB 196. If passed by two-thirds of the House and Senate, the electorate of Louisiana will have the opportunity to end virtually all-fiscal dedications in the state budget. If Morrell’s amendment fails, Louisiana’s University budget will be slashed by 82 percent terminating the very existence of many campuses, including most historically Black colleges. The impact on hospitals and health care will be even worse.
The conventional wisdom has held that each legislator has his or her program that “must be protected” no matter how severe the cuts may be to the only undedicated elements of the budget which are hospitals and colleges. Yet, with both areas facing draconian cuts, even those legislators might be open to reason.
Morrell’s effort is also bipartisan.
As Republican State Rep. Cameron Henry of Old Jefferson thinks the constitutional amendment will gain supermajorities in both houses, “What you are voting on is allowing your constituents to vote.”
For the amendment to pass, state legislators only need to allow their own constituents to make the choice.
Morrell, in an interview with The Louisiana Weekly, says, “At the end of the day, when you look at the current scenario we are facing in the State of Louisiana in regards to our budget crisis, in higher education, in health care, there is no positive outcome whatsoever. That being said, you have heard repeatedly, that the legislature speak about the idea that our hands are tied because how many constitutional pots of money are protected from legislative purview and the governor’s budgetary tinkering. I’ve actually filed a constitutional amendment to repeal a large chunk of the constitutionally protected dollars to put them back in the general pool the legislature as flexibility to deal with.
“The issue is right now the way our budget is structured, you can’t really share the pain,” Morrell explained. “The legislature gets calls from people regarding what our priorities should be and higher education and health care are areas that should be our priorities. Lacking the flexibility to deal with up to 60-70 percent of our budget, I mean, you can’t budget your household that way. “
“If you have 100 percent of household expenses, and cable is protected, and you can’t change your cable bill each month, but you do have to decide whether your kids go to school, or whether you pay your health care premium, that’s insane. And the reality is that we should be able to look at all the monies that are available in our existing budget.
“And, when you are talking about $1.6 billion, it’s apocalyptic when the amount of money that the legislature is purview over is $3 billion. What if we had a greater amount of money to look at it, if we had access to $10 billion for our budget to spread those cuts across, the pain would be a lot less and we could do that. If this constitutional amendment passes the legislature, if it gets in front of the people, the people of Louisiana could choose to say we want greater flexibility in how we structure a budget. We want to be able to spread the pain around. We don’t want higher education, and we don’t want health care to take it on the chin.”
Rep. Henry called it the gravest situation “we’ve seen in our time, and hopefully it is the last time,” he added in support of Morrell’s constitutional amendment.
“Our state budget is roughly $26 billion,” says Henry. And of that money, “the amount we have control over as a legislature is $3 billion. That $3 billion is divided hospitals, higher education, and the Department of Education. So, we don’t have a lot of access to funding, as Sen. Morrell was discussing, we have a lot of money tied up in constitutionally or statutorily dedicated funds.”
As he outlined, the constitutionally dedicated funds equal $2.2 billion that would have otherwise gone to the general fund, along with another $681 million in statutorily dedicated funds legislators cannot currently touch. “We have handcuffed ourselves,” Henry maintained. “Until you have a prioritized budget, you will never have a balanced budget. So, we have to figure out what’s important to this state, and move from there. And, we say that Health and higher Ed are important, so in my opinion, and I’m not going to speak for the Senator, we should fund those first.”
And, Morrell thinks the effort to fund those areas and put his constitutional amendment before the voters will succeed, even before the most reluctant member of the House or Senate. “Sometimes the legislature underestimates the average citizen. I think if you put before the citizens a ballot measure saying this repeals this slew of constitutionally protected dollars, and these are the results, they will make a judgment call. They will say are these constitutionally protected funds so important that we want to bear these cuts across higher education and health care.”
As to whether he will get two-thirds of both houses, “I can’t honestly say if I know the support is there, or not, but what I will say is this. But, if you are a legislator, and many do it, who constantly bemoan the fact that we don’t have access to these dollars that are constitutionally protected, I think it will be very disingenuous if this bill put in front of you, and you vote ‘no’, to then turn around to your constitutions and go, ‘I had to cut higher education and health care because I don’t have access to the money that’s constitutionally protected.’
“At the end of the day, what we are voting on is letting the voters decide what they want us to do with the budget going forward. And, I think it’s a very powerful argument when the cuts are this dire, when you are looking at the level of this pain and something that really effect our ability to competitive and to stay attractive to business.”
“I mean, the healthcare situation is abysmal, but higher education is what defines you as a state that is capable of attracting the technology field and the various parts of the business sector. If we continue to struggle with this, it will affect our ability to be a business friendly state. I think that a lot of legislators are willing to acknowledge is that, listen, if this measure is something that goes before the voters, and the voters get to choose, I think it’s a very powerful argument. Will this be successful? I don’t know. But, I mean all you can do is try. I think if there is any year that this has a chance of getting legs, this is the year.”
This article originally published in the April 13, 2015 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
