by Karl Kurtz
The Arkansas News Bureau writes about "Annual session amendment raises questions:"
Officials were puzzled Wednesday over voter approval of a constitutional amendment authorizing annual legislative sessions that got little attention or campaigning.
"I was shocked," Gov. Mike Beebe said. "Arkansas is one of the most restrictive states in the union on legislative term limits, and yet we voted for the annual session. That was the most shocking thing to me of the entire election."
With all precincts statewide reporting unofficial results Wednesday, the measure received 658,699 (69 percent) votes to 290,543 (31 percent) against.
Voters in 2002 defeated a proposed constitutional amendment that would have allowed annual legislative sessions.
The Arkansas Legislature now meets every other year, in odd-number years. The amendment authorizes lawmakers to also meet in even-numbered years to consider budget matters only in a 30-day session.
Despite passage of the amendment, the governor said he still plans to propose his biennial budget to lawmakers as scheduled on Nov. 13....
"I was shocked," Gov. Mike Beebe said. "Arkansas is one of the most restrictive states in the union on legislative term limits, and yet we voted for the annual session. That was the most shocking thing to me of the entire election."
With all precincts statewide reporting unofficial results Wednesday, the measure received 658,699 (69 percent) votes to 290,543 (31 percent) against.
Voters in 2002 defeated a proposed constitutional amendment that would have allowed annual legislative sessions.
The Arkansas Legislature now meets every other year, in odd-number years. The amendment authorizes lawmakers to also meet in even-numbered years to consider budget matters only in a 30-day session.
Despite passage of the amendment, the governor said he still plans to propose his biennial budget to lawmakers as scheduled on Nov. 13....
This change reduces the number of states that practice biennial (as opposed to annual) budgeting to 20. Arkansas is the first state to switch from biennial to annual budgeting in the last two decades, according to Ron Snell's excellent article, "Annual and Biennial Budgeting: The Experience of State Governments."
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