WEST MONROE, LA. (KTVE/KARD)– This amendment deals with the state’s unclaimed property funds.

Doctor John Sutherlin with ULM said for the last 50 years, the state has collected unclaimed money from things like fees, fines, bank accounts, and insurance.

Sutherlin said over the past two years, there has been four times the claims made by people wanting to get their unclaimed money. That leads to uncertainties, like could there be more claims than actual money?

The idea of Amendment 7 is to create a trust fund to invest in the money generated from this.

“Right now, never in the 50 years that it’s been created, has all the money been claimed, so there’s roughly a billion dollars of money out there that has yet to be claimed,” Sutherlin said.

A trust fund would allow the state to invest that money, which, in turn, would earn interest and then from there could be appropriated.

Early voting is going on in both Louisiana and Arkansas. Mississippi is the only state in the country that does not offer early voting