BATON ROUGE — Voters across the state will be voting on a slate of four constitutional amendments that will affect aspects of the state tax code, how juveniles are prosecuted, protocols for judicial vacancies and the discipline of lawyers when they enter polling booths to fill out their ballots on March 29.

To help voters understand what's on the ballot, the Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana released explainers for each of the constitutional amendments. PAR's guides can be found here.

The largest change to the state's constitution will be Amendment Two, which would create a litany of changes to the state tax code, some of which opponents say are not listed on the ballot.

A lawsuit has been filed by voters in Orleans and Ascension parishes alleging that the ballot measures only highlight the positive changes that will take effect if the amendments pass.

"These 105 pages of rewrites to the state constitution that are proposed are so complicated and not transparent," attorney William Most, who was among those who filed the lawsuit against the amendment's language, said. "I don't think any voter or the legislator who voted on it understand what is being proposed."

The lawsuit, which seeks to remove the measures from the ballot, says the language presented to voters cannot briefly summarize all of the changes as required.

"Regardless of the lawsuit, I think it is a fair question this is a lot to ask the people to vote for," PAR President Steven Procopio said at Baton Rouge Press Club on Monday.

Among the portions set to be rewritten with a yes vote on the new amendment are creating tight limits of annual growth in Louisiana's general fund spending, increasing the cap on deposits into the Budget Stabilization Fund, eliminating the Revenue Stabilization Fund and the dissolution of three education trust funds that would then be used to permanently fund a currently active teacher stipend. 

"There is a a little bit of hiccup where some districts will need a additional money, in which the governor said he will give them but for the most part, that pay raise would become permanent," Procopio said. "It is important to point out by the governor's proposed budget, there is no other money if this doesn't [pass]. Either the legislator will have to find additional money by raising taxes or making cuts elsewhere."

The amendment's text phrases it as a raise for the state's teachers. Its opponents say that this will do more harm than the good it purports. 

"Once you get into the fine print you will see that Amendment Two proposes to totally destroy certain education trust funds, and then would put that money into an account which would then have schools pay less into it, and schools would then use some of those savings to provide some pay for teachers," Most said.

A yes vote on Amendment Two would also allow governments to lessen property taxes on business inventory or get a one-time payment if they stop charging those taxes, as well as removing some property tax breaks from the constitution.

The new amendment would also double the standard deduction for people over 65, which would provide an additional income tax break and lower the maximum rate of income tax.

If passed, the amendment would "enact new tax rules, place limits on the enactment of tax breaks, lower the cap on individual income tax rates and allow more severance tax money to flow to local government," the PAR guide says.

The other amendments on the ballot will also bring changes to the state if passed by voters in March.

Amendment One would give the Louisiana Supreme Court authority to discipline out-of-state lawyers for legal work in the state. It would also permit the State Legislature to create specialty courts not limited to parish and judicial district boundaries.

Amendment Three would remove the list of 16 crimes for which people under the age of 17 can be charged as adults from the Louisiana Constitution. This would allow lawmakers to more easily expand the list of felony offenses for which juveniles can be tried as adults.

Amendment Four would change the timing requirements for filling a judicial vacancy or a new judgeship so the special election coincides with the regular elections calendar.