DEAR EDITOR:

I would like to use this means to convey my personal thanks and admiration to the people of our state for the passage of Amendment No. 2 on Nov. 5. While this may not qualify as the “upset of the century,” at the very least I’d have to say it was a pleasant surprise.

More than any other election result, this one seemed to go against all conventional wisdom and political expertise. It didn’t fail in all upper-income areas (witness: Jefferson, St. Tammany, Tangipahoa, East Baton Rouge and Calcasieu parishes); it didn’t require a large turnout in the minority community (witness the difference of 15 percentage points between the black and white voter turnouts); it didn’t require a tremendous monetary expenditure for media exposure (less than $100,000 was spent in promoting this plan, compared to more than a million spent on the failed attempt in 1989). Could it possibly be that, as a New Orleans editorial writer surmised, the people simply voted for it because “it was the right thing to do?”

As unbelievable and amazing as that might seem, I believe it serves to underscore what I have always believed. Our people are compassionate to those less fortunate and intelligent enough to analyze an issue and make an informed decision (witness the fact that of the 12 amendments offered, six passed and six failed).

As was reiterated many times (at least in the 135 presentations made by myself), Amendment No. 2 is not the end-all for fiscal reform in our state. Several more steps need to be taken, beginning with business tax issues, and the ball is now back in our legislature’s court. If we fumble it, we will have taken a major step backward in earning the trust of our citizens.

Louisiana and its people are better than our misconceived negative image. The first ones who need to be convinced of this are our people themselves. We have been told so often how bad we are, we have come to believe it. To this, my response is “hogwash.”

Rep. John Stelly
District 35
Lake Charles