ConstitutionCon

If a complicated multi-step process makes its way through several meanderings, we might have a constitutional convention two years from now.

Under HB 456, the Legislature would create a 27-member committee of affiliates from different state associations to meet in September and determine whether a constitutional convention is even needed. If so, the committee would provide a written plan. The proposed convention would then need two-thirds approval of the 2018 Legislature.

If those thresholds are met, the convention would meet in January 2019. It would comprise the committee members and a delegate from each of the 105 House districts. Anyone could run to be one of the delegates as long as they represent their House district. 

In the meantime there's a fair to middling chance the initial bill at least passes the House. At the very least it gives everybody a ready made excuse for not solving the budget problem this year or next. 

Update: Quickly just to add.. this session began with such high hopes. And now look.

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — After months of study by a blue-ribbon panel commissioned to recommend tax overhaul ideas, Louisiana’s lawmakers are on track to reject most of the big-ticket concepts, sending the suggestions to the same dustbin as past studies.

Few task force tax suggestions have advanced beyond their first hearings. Several of the main proposals have been killed outright, while others haven’t even gotten a hearing as bill sponsors realized they’re unlikely to gain traction.

The stopping point for many proposals has been the conservative, majority-Republican House Ways and Means Committee, where most tax bills must start.

That's Neil Abramson's Committee. Neil said at the outset he'd prefer just to do the constitutional convention. So here we are.