(The Center Square) − Louisiana voters are being asked whether lawmakers should gain new power to decide which state employees keep civil service protections and which can be turned into appointed workers.
Most rank-and-file state employees – like social workers at the Department of Children and Family Services or accountants at the Department of Transportation – are considered as part of the classified civil service. These employees are hired often through competitive exams, and enjoy job protections that shield them from political interference or arbitrary firing.
Were the amendment to pass, lawmakers could later move certain positions out of the classified system by statute, potentially stripping those jobs of competitive hiring requirements and some employment protections.
The change was authored by Sen. Jay Morris, R-West Monroe. He said the current system “prioritizes seniority over performance, endless appeals and often court actions.”
“We need a system based more on merit,” Morris told the Senate & Governmental Affairs Committee in April of 2025.
According to the Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana, supporters say the amendment would help address a civil service system they view as too rigid and bureaucratic. They say the current framework can make it unnecessarily difficult to improve operations, respond to poor performance and give agencies the flexibility they need to manage workers more effectively.
The same organization says the change risks injecting more “political meddling” into state government by weakening civil service protections, exposing employees to political pressure and eroding some existing safeguards on salaries and employment decisions.
“It means that you’re a political appointee,” Jan Moller, director of Invest in Louisiana, said during a panel hosted by the Public Affairs Research Council. “You can be fired for any reason whatsoever or no reason at all. These are your civil servants who have real protections so that they can keep their jobs. They are career professionals in most cases. And giving politicians more authority to decide who should be these at will political appointees, I think, just takes us in the wrong direction.”
