Voters OK term limits

NEW ORLEANS—With 99 percent of precincts reporting, voters approved constitutional amendments imposing term limits on boards—including the Public Service Commission and the Southern University Board of Supervisors—and lengthening the advance notice for calling a special legislative session. A proposal to ease restrictions on government expropriations, seen by supporters as important to areas still recovering from Hurricane Katrina, appeared to have been defeated.
Voters were deciding a spate of proposed constitutional amendments. With 99 percent of precincts reporting, and some early voting and absentee ballots from Orleans and St. Tammany parishes still pending, unofficial results indicated:
—Proposed Amendment 1 passing, with 69 percent favoring term limits for 10 boards and commissions, including the PSC, state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education and state Board of Regents;
—Proposed Amendment 2 passing, with 60 percent favoring changing from at least five days to at least seven the advance notice for calling a special legislative session;
—Proposed Amendment 3 passing, with 62 percent favoring allowing for a temporary appointment to a legislative seat vacated for more than 180 days by a member on active military leave;
—Proposed Amendment 4 defeated, with 55 percent opposing raising the annual local share cap on energy revenue from $850,000 to $1.85 million in 2009 and $2.85 million in 2010, a level that could go up in later years, depending on inflation. Estimates said the proposal would by 2010 have a $56 million hit on the state general fund, yet it was seen by oil- and gas-producing parishes as important.