The Louisiana State Legislature voted to send six constitutional amendments to the 2026 ballot before adjourning on June 12. The six amendments will be decided at two different elections; five will appear on the ballot on April 18, 2026, and one on Nov. 3, 2026. The constitutional amendments cover a variety of topics, including the judicial retirement age, the status of civil employees, public school systems, property tax exemptions, and retirement systems.
April 18, 2026, ballot measures
House Bill 63 (HB 63) would change the mandatory retirement age for Louisiana judges from 70 to 75. Under this constitutional amendment, judges would be required to leave office on or before their seventy-fifth birthday. An exception is made for judges who are serving a term position; they would be permitted to complete their term of service after their 75th birthday before retiring.
Senate Bill 8 (SB 8) would permit the legislature to alter the classified and unclassified status of civil officers and employees. The legislature would be able to transfer civil service employees from classified to unclassified and vice versa. As of 2025, the State Civil Service Commission determines whether positions are classified or unclassified. The amendment would allow the commission to continue placing positions in the unclassified service, but the commission would no longer be allowed to move positions out of the unclassified service.
Senate Bill 25 (SB 25) would grant the St. George Community School System the same authority as a parish. The school system would become the third school system in East Baton Rouge to receive that authority. No other school systems in the state have the same authority as a parish.
House Bill 366 (HB 366) would permit parishes to reduce or create an exemption for business inventory from property taxes. Business inventory would include property being held to sell and property held to be used in the production of a good that would be sold.
House Bill 473 (HB 473) would repeal the Education Excellence Fund, the Education Quality Trust Fund, and the Quality Education Support Fund, and instead apply the money in those funds to the Teachers’ Retirement System of Louisiana (TRSL). Any savings resulting from these changes would be used by public school systems that participate in TRSL to provide permanent salary increases of $2,250 for certificated personnel and $1,125 for non-certificated personnel.
Nov. 3, 2026, ballot measures
House Bill 300 (HB 300) would raise the income limit to qualify for the property tax special assessment program. Under the special assessment program, eligible homeowners can freeze the assessed value of their home so their property taxes do not increase. As of 2025, the income limit to participate in the program is $100,000 annually. The amendment would increase the limit to $150,000. Income is not the only eligibility requirement for the program; to be eligible for the program, an individual must either be older than 64, permanently disabled, a veteran with a service-related disability of 50% or more, or the spouse of a member of the armed forces or national guard killed in action, missing in action, or held as a prisoner of war.
Legislative referrals and partisanship
A two-thirds vote is required from both chambers of the Louisiana State Legislature during one legislative session for the state legislature to place a constitutional amendment on the ballot. That amounts to a minimum of 70 votes in the state House and 26 votes in the state Senate, assuming no vacancies. Both the state House and Senate are controlled by the Republican Party; no Democratic votes are required to achieve a two-thirds vote on a constitutional amendment.
Of the six constitutional amendments placed on the ballot, four received bipartisan support, defined as having less than a 20 percentage point difference between Republican and Democratic ‘yes’ vote rates. Two of those four, HB 473 and HB 366, received unanimous support from all voting members.
Two amendments, SB 25 and SB 8, were classified as Republican, meaning the Republican ‘yes’ vote rate exceeded the Democratic rate by more than 60 percentage points. HB 25, the amendment that would grant the St. George school system the authority of a parish, was supported by all Republicans and no Democrats.
An additional five constitutional amendments were passed by one chamber of the legislature during the 2025 session. These amendments failed to meet the two-thirds approval requirement in both chambers to be placed on the ballot.
Every constitutional amendment passed in this legislative session will be on the ballot in 2026. As such, no constitutional amendments are on the fall ballot in 2025. That makes 2025 the first odd-numbered year that voters will not decide a constitutional amendment on the fall Louisiana ballot since 2013.
Louisiana voters decided four constitutional amendments during a special election earlier this year on March 29. All four measures were defeated, with no measure earning more than 36% of the vote.