For the second time in several weeks, state Treasurer John Kennedy wondered aloud this afternoon whether some of the 11 House-passed bills that are expected to raise roughly $615 million annually via tax hikes were approved constitutionally.
Kennedy, speaking to the Press Club of Baton Rouge, said the bills that now are before Senate committees have an “excellent chance” of being declared unconstitutional if challenged in court. His argument is built upon Article 7, Section 2 of the state’s constitution, which says any “new tax, an increase in an existing tax, or a repeal of an existing tax exemption” needs a two-thirds majority from both the House and Senate to become law.
Five of the 11 bills were passed without the two-thirds vote. However, Kennedy said, the Legislature is basing its approval on a 1993 attorney general’s opinion that says only a majority vote is necessary to suspend an existing tax exemption.
The bills passed via majority were all related to scaling back tax exemptions and credits. The treasurer, though, said transcripts from the state’s 1973 constitutional convention indicate lawmakers back then weren’t making an exception for partial exemptions.
“This house of cards can come tumbling down,” said Kennedy, who teaches state constitutional law as an adjunct professor at LSU’s Paul M. Hebert Law Center. “If somebody files suit and challenges this and wins, then we’re going to have to do it all over again.”
Kennedy made similar comments to the Monroe Chamber of Commerce on May 12, a few days after the House OK’d the deals, according to the Monroe News-Star. Granted, a legal challenge to the bills might not take place until after the session, which ends Monday, June 11. And the bills might not even survive the stroke of Gov. Bobby Jindal’s pen, as he has pledged to veto any net tax increases.
However, if the bills are ever found unconstitutional—or if they are halted in the Senate—lawmakers would be left scrambling to find new ways to solve the state’s fiscal crisis, Kennedy said. The bills have become a key brick holding up the foundation of the Legislature’s plan for fixing—at least partially—Louisiana’s $1.6 billion budget deficit heading into next fiscal year.
The House approved the 11 bills on May 7, and at the time the bills were expected to haul in $664 million annually. That figure since has fallen to $615 million. The Senate Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Committee approved them May 18 without objection. The Senate Finance Committee will hear the bills next.
—Robert Stewart
