History
Progressive reformers, who were never a major force in Louisiana
politics, failed to pass a statewide initiative and referendum amendment,
but they did succeed in passing laws providing for municipal I&R (1912)
and for recall of statewide elected officers (1914).
In the mid-1970s backers of a rent control initiative collected the
required 10,000 signatures to put it on the New Orleans ballot, only to be
barred by a ruling of the state supreme court that initiative charter
amendments must be related to matters in the existing city charter. In April
1981 voters passed an initiative to restrict the city council’s power to enact
flat-rate taxes on real property and motor vehicles.
The biggest New Orleans initiative battle in recent years, however, was
over the city council’s power to regulate electric utility rates. The council
had this power until 1982, when voters approved the transfer of the
authority to the state public service commission. Little more than a year
later, a utility company, New Orleans Public Service, Inc. (NOPSI), asked
for a huge rate increase to finance the construction of the Grand Gulf
nuclear power plant.
Mayor Ernest Morial and Council Members Joseph Giarusso and
James Singleton sponsored an initiative in 1983 to return the power to
regulate utility rates to the city council. Utility company executives and
stockholders raised $800,000 for a campaign to defeat it, an
unprecedented amount for a New Orleans election campaign. Backers
spent only $35,000 and were narrowly defeated on November 8, 1983: the
vote was 78,746 (49.8 percent) in favor and 79,434 against.
The sponsors came back with another initiative a year and a half later.
This time the utilities spent $2 million on their “Vote No” advertising blitz, but
it did not sway the voters. On May 4, 1985, New Orleans voted by a two to
one margin to return control of utility rates to the city.
In 1999, Governor Mike Foster, working with the Initiative & Referendum
Institute, supported efforts to add the initiative and referendum process to
the state constitution. Though his commitment was strong, the state
legislature rebuffed his efforts.
Excerpted from the Initiative & Referendum Almanac by M. Dane Waters.