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The voters of Tangipahoa Parish have been and are continue to be told by the local and Baton Rouge media that if we don’t pass the massive school property and sales taxes on Saturday’s ballot Federal Judge Ivan Lemelle will simply order the taxes be imposed.

Despite my efforts to enlighten the media or at least offer a different point of view (Balance as the media calls it.), you have not read and will not read anything contrary in the print media. It doesn’t fit their agenda of supporting these taxes.

Background

Initially, the judge said that he could impose the taxes himself. When he finally got around to reading the Federal jurisprudence, he backed-off that position. Now, according to the media, the judge can order the school board to impose the taxes on its own volition.

Any (state or federal) judge can issue an order that the sun shall rise in the west, but that doesn’t mean it will happen. Same with ordering a school board to do something which it has no authority to do.

Law

The Louisiana Constitution prohibits the imposition of local property and sales taxes without approval of a majority of the voters who vote in an election for that purpose in the affected area. (See LA Const. Article VI, Section 29(A) and Art. VIII, Section 13(C) 3rd Paragraph.)

If Judge Lemelle orders the Tangipahoa Parish School Board to raise sales and property taxes, the board must appeal the order to the U.S. 5^th Circuit Court of Appeal because they would be violating their oath to uphold the laws of Louisiana. (LA Const. Article X, Section 30).

My opinion

The above is an opinion you’ve not seen in the print media because they will not publish it.

I’m not a law professor nor am I a legal scholar. I’m merely a taxpayer in Tangipahoa Parish, am licensed to practice law in Louisiana and have taught at a couple of Louisiana law schools.

C.B.

1 CB 1:31 pm

The preamble to the Louisiana Constitution begins with “We, the people of Louisiana”
It does not state: “We the legislators of Louisiana”

Constitutional law 101

A basic legal tenet of law-making is that a statute cannot change or supersede a provision in a state constitution.

The state constitution is the document by which we, the people of Louisiana set limits on what those who work for government can and cannot do.

If the leges can change that document without approval of we, the people of Louisiana it defeats its entire purpose.

We, the people of Louisiana have declared that, except where a higher vote is specifically authorized, the passage of a law in Louisiana requires a majority vote of the elected members of lege.

The appropriation of money is a law. (LA Const. Article III, Section 15(G))

There has been much media attention to HB 189 by Reps Brett Geymann and Jim Morris which has been introduced in the 2011 Regular Session. The bill purports to amend the state statutes to require a 2/3’s vote of the leges to appropriate “one-time” money.

In other words, HB 189 purports to change the state constitution via a statute and thus circumvent the proper procedures outlined in the constitution for amendments to it.

Regardless, of any good intentions behind the legislation, the ends do not justify the means.

We, the people of Louisiana have declared that changes to the state constitution can only be made via a Joint Resolution of the leges which must receive at least a 2/3s vote of the elected members of each house of the lege and subsequently be approved by a majority of we, the people of Louisiana voting at an election called for that purpose. (LA Const. Article XIII, Section 1)

If the lege can change the constitutionally-required vote by statute then 53 members of the House and 20 members of the Senate can reduce to a majority the vote requirement in the constitution that the lege must get a 2/3’s vote to raise taxes.

On Thursday, Geymann was on Moon Griffon’s statewide radio show. Moon questioned how Geymann could change the constitution with a simple statute. Moon told Geymann that several people told him (Griffon) that it could not be done.

Geymann’s response was typical for our leges. He said the public “doesn’t understand.” That’s the standard response when a lege is confronted by something they don’t understand.

Cost of grandstanding

When leges want to “grandstand” right before reelection they never let something like we the people of Louisiana and common sense stand in their way.

It takes several thousand dollars of our tax dollars to draft and introduce a single piece of legislation whether it is ever heard or fails or passes and does nothing.

Solution

If these two leges are sincere (I can’t read their minds.) and want to restrict the use of one-time funds in the State Operating Budget they would actually accomplish something if they rounded up 53 votes in the House and 20 votes in the Senate to delete all of the non-recurring money inserted into the budget by Team Jindal.

However, the attributes of saving money,common sense and respect for we, the people of Louisiana are hard to find among the leges.

HB 189 is by no means the only meaningless piece of legislation filed for the 2011 Regular Session. Tell your leges that we, the people of Louisiana, want them to stop wasting our money by grandstanding on meaningless bills, get the budget approved and go home ASAP.

C.B.

Икони

1 CB 6:00 am

I’ve always known that the leges had a low opinion of us citizens a.k.a. mullets.

Rep. Truck Gisclair has introduced House Bill 75 which allows for the capturing of mullets to be used for bait.

The leges further demean us by reducing our status to nothing more than bait. Imagine a man called “Truck” thinks we are bait!

Thanks to “Watchcat” (a complimentary term) Jeremy Alford for bringing this to our attention.

C.B.

1 CB 8:00 am