Strong opposition to requiring at least a 20 percent voter turnout for an election for a property or sales tax to pass wasn’t enough to kill it. With only the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry for it and numerous groups like the Louisiana Municipal Association and Louisiana School Boards Association against it, SB200 by Sen. Bret Allain, R-Franklin, survived the Senate Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Committee when Chairman Sen. Neil Riser, R-Columbia, voted to create a 5-5 tie. That vote left the bill in committee to be heard later. “I’m talking about a higher standard,” Allain said. “These are tax elections where they’re taking people’s money.”
He said taxing agencies sometimes schedule elections when they know there’s going to be a light turnout so there’s a better chance of proposals being approved.
“People don’t go vote,” Allain said, and he believes if taxing bodies know they have to have at least 20 percent of the people go to the polls, they’ll advertise the elections and urge people to vote.
Allain’s bill is a constitutional amendment, so it would require a two-thirds vote of the House and Senate and approval by voters to be enacted.
Full Article: Bill requiring 20 percent voter turnout for tax election survives | Shreveporttimes | shreveporttimes.com.