by Karl Kurtz
The great majority of state legislatures go into session in January, but the peak month for legislative sessions is February, when almost all legislatures have convened and the first ones to adjourn have not yet done so. In odd-numbered years (the first year of the biennium for most states), 25 (half) of the legislatures are still in session at the end of May, but in June adjournments come fast and furious so that by July less than 10 remain in session.
In the second (even-numbered) year of the biennium, when only 46 states are in session, February is still the peak month, but adjournments come earlier as many states have shorter sessions in the second year. More than half of the states have adjourned by the first week in May in the even-numbered years.
Those are a few conclusions from a graphic look at the number of state legislatures by week throughout the year. This graph is one that is in the head of any knowledgeable planner of events for state legislators and staff, but I haven't ever seen it pictured in this way (click to enlarge):
A few qualifiers about the graph: First, many states do not have specified end dates for their legislative sessions, so the adjournment dates that were used to create this picture are estimates that may be off by a week or two either way. Second, the image of 8-9 state legislatures in session after the first of July is a bit misleading. Most of these are states that remain in formal session throughout the year, but several of them meet only sporadically or not at all in the second half of the year.
Related posts: Who will Meet in 2011? and Nine Legislative Sessions Convene Today.
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