BATON ROUGE — Louisiana residents will vote on five constitutional amendments in this weekend's elections.

The first amendment deals with changes to state civil service. If passed, it would give the legislature more authority over which state jobs are protected. Currently, an independent civil service commission determines this, but the amendment would shift that power to elected lawmakers.

"The people that are for it are really arguing that civil service can be very slow to act and it doesn't provide a lot of flexibility, for example, to pay people more if you have the structure or to fire people quicker if you think there's a problem," President of the Public Affairs Research Council Steven Procopio said.

Amendment Two would determine if St. George can have its own public school system. St. George is a newly created city within East Baton Rouge Parish and is seeking to establish its own independent school system. If passed, the school system would function like a separate parish system.

"People are concerned on what it might do to the East Baton Rouge school system; it would lose resources for example and you also have to worry about what the diverse makeup is, although there are arguments on both sides on that one as well," Procopio said.

Amendment Three addresses teacher retirement debt funding and teacher pay raises. It would raise educator pay by dissolving three education trust funds and using that money. The funds being dissolved are the Education Excellence Fund, the Education Quality Trust Fund and the Support Fund.

If passed, the amendment would fund permanent annual raises of $2,250 for teachers and $1,125 for support staff.

"There will be a couple of school systems that won't have enough money or enough savings and in that case, the state will make up the difference and in some cases, the locals will actually have more money," Procopio said.

Amendment Four addresses property taxes on business inventory. It would allow local parishes to reduce or eliminate property taxes on business inventory.

"A vote for this would allow local governments to lower their inventory tax or even eliminate it, a vote against would not allow that maneuver," Procopio said.

Amendment Five will determine if the retirement age for judges is raised. The current mandatory retirement age for judges is 70 years old. If passed, that age would be increased to 75 years old.

One of the purposes of this is to retain experienced judges.

"It doesn't mean they have to retire at 70 or 75; that means after that age, they can't run for office again, so if you turn 70, it just means you can't run again, you can be in there until your 72, 73, or even 79, depending on what office you're running for," Procopio said.