The Thicket at State Legislatures

Arizona Legislature Ends Session

By Jan Goehring

The Arizona Legislature adjourned sine die on Friday, June 27. With the end of the fiscal year looming and a possible partial state government shutdown at stake, the Legislature resolved a difficult budget. Facing a nearly $2 billion shortfall, the budget includes agency cuts, fund transfers, deferral of school construction and some borrowing.

In the last hours of the session, the Senate agreed to send the voters a referendum to amend the state constitution to define marriage as a union of one man and one woman. It had previously passed the House.

New laws will help improve Child Protective Services, allow photo enforcement on highways, change the high school exit exam, regulate mortgage loan originators, and strengthen DUI laws. 

Louisiana Adjournment

"Chaotic legislative session comes to an end" is the Times-Picayune's headline summarizing Louisiana's legislative session that adjourned yesterday.  Here are the top lines of the story:

Lawmakers provided new money for education and health care, overhauled the state's worker-training system, bolstered the state's mental health safety net and steered tax dollars to a private school voucher program for poor children in New Orleans.

But the session is likely to be best remembered for two items that were not part of the governor's plan: an increase of legislative salaries from $16,800 to $37,500 a year, and a $300-million-a-year tax cut that the administration initially opposed but ultimately embraced....

And while House Speaker Jim Tucker, R-Algiers, is a subject of derision on radio talk show and Internet chat boards, his stewardship of the pay-raise bill earned him bipartisan acclaim from his colleagues, who saw him as standing up to the administration.

"This is the closest we have come to being an independent body from the fourth floor, and that bodes well for this body," Rep. Roy Burrell, D-Shreveport, said as lawmakers prepared to leave the Capitol.

We first wrote about seeds of change in Louisiana that might lead to more assertiveness on the part of the Legislature a year ago in "Changes in the Louisiana Legislature."

Sine Die Traditions

by Meagan Dorsch

Each year, our NCSL contributors to the Thicket work hard to post a Sine Die (scroll down if you hit this link) for each legislature as it goes dark.

This morning, I noticed an article posted by Dan Petty at Stateline.org. Dan had a little fun with his Sine Die piece, delving into the traditions state legislatures have for the final day of session. 

Our own Karl Kurtz wrote an article on Sine Die and other Vulgarities, where you can find a great list of legislative localisms (this is also one of the most googled article in the Thicket).

Please enjoy both pieces when you have some time, and let us know of any other (Sine Die) traditions that your state might celebrate!

Sessions Over in Florida, Hawaii, Colorado, Minnesota and Vermont

by Julie Lays

More states have ended their legislative sessions.

• Florida's session was overshadowed by the state's lack of money, according to the Associated Press. Lawmakers did manage, however, to pass a $66.2 billion balanced budget, with more than $4 billion in cuts targeted mostly at school children and Medicaid patients.
• Hawaii lawmakers ended their session by approving a smoking ban in public places, allocating $3 million for schools and requiring solar water heaters in new housing. They also approved a $50-million tax cut. But the session may be remembered more for those bills that got away as for those that passed, according to the Honolulu Advertiser.
• Colorado's 119-day session ended May 6. Legislators passed major changes to education curriculum and school construction, but they couldn't find solutions to transportation issues. Lawmakers passed a ballot question that will go before the voters this fall to change how citizens amend the constitution through the initiative process.
• The Minnesota Legislature adjourned May 18 with a relatively well-received compromise budget between the Democratic Legislature and Republican Governor Tim Pawlenty. According to an editorial in In-Forum, "the relatively cordial end to the session is in stark contrast to previous sessions, and that’s probably a good thing in the long run." Lawmakers boosted per student school funding by $51, came to an agreement with the governor to expand public and private health insurance coverage, and passed a property tax relief package and more state aid for cities, counties and townships.
• Saving the state money, the Vermont General Assembly adjourned two weeks early on May 3. In a surprise move, legislative leaders said they won’t bring the legislature back for a day in June to consider whether to override any vetoes. According to WCAX-TV, lawmakers passed a bill to help Vermonters use less heating oil, revamped the state's prison system to save money and passed a balanced budget in tough economic times with no new taxes.

Sine Die: Legislatures in Iowa, Nebraska, Kentucky and Maine adjourned in the second half of April

by Julie Lays

• Iowa ended its session April 28 at 2:38 in the morning by finishing work on the $6 billion budget. This session, the General Assembly passed a smoking ban in public places and created an insurance consumer advocate. Lawmakers also voted to help pay for roads with increased vehicle registration fees, a move the Des Moines Register believed was "a good first step."
• Iowa's neighbor to the west, Nebraska, finished up its session on April 17 with a review of more than two dozen bills. Nebraska lawmakers passed bills on highway funding, school finance, standardized testing in public schools and a statewide smoking ban, to name a few. The Topeka Capital-Journal praised the nonpartisan, unicameral's efficiency. "They start accomplishing things early," the newspaper said in a editorial. "They don't try to cram everything into the frantic final days."
• Kentucky also adjourned its 60-day session in mid-April. Lawmakers approved more than 150 bills ranging from creating incentives to attract math and science teachers to allowing 16-year-olds to give blood to protecting streams and rivers to encouraging solar and wind energy.
• Maine lawmakers, in a final push to fund the controversial Dirigo Health program, passed a bill that will raise taxes on beer, wine and soda, as well as levy a surcharge on health insurance claims. The Morning Sentinel called the  session "largely effective." Lawmakers also enacted a jail consolidation plan, took action to secure state driver's licenses and identification cards, authorized bonds totaling $160 million to pay for shoring up the state's transportation infrastructure, and improved the state's landmark school consolidation law. The Legislature approved a state budget rewrite to offset a $190 million shortfall in Maine’s $6.3 billion two-year general fund budget. Legislative analysts, however, say revenue exceeded projections by $23.2 million in April, which could help offset cuts, according to the Associated Press in the Bangor Daily News.

Early April Adjournments in Alaska, Georgia, Idaho, Maryland

by Karl Kurtz and Bakur Kvaratskhelia

Catching up on our sine die series, four state legislatures "went dark" in the first few weeks of April.

• The Idaho Legislature adjourned its 87-day session on April 2. State revenue came in slower than expected, leading to the failure of new spending proposals, especially in the area of transportation.  Republican Governor Bruce Otter and the Republican majority in the legislature were often at odds.  Significant tax changes included an increase in the rebate that Idahoans receive for sales taxes on groceries and an increase in the exemption for business equipment taxes.
• The Georgia General Assembly completed its 40-day legislative session on April 4. Major legislation enacted included a bill that facilitates creation of charter schools, a measure to make it easier for permit holders to carry weapons in restaurants and other public places, and a plan to make it easier to build new water reservoirs in the drought-stricken state.  The House and Senate each had dueling tax cut measures and were unable to reach agreement on either of them.   
• The Maryland General Assembly wrapped up its 2008 session on April 8, with $500 million in budget cuts in a faltering state economy at the forefront. Gov. Martin O'Malley described the session as a "really grueling" period. In response to a computer industry outcry, the legislature repealed a computer services tax that it has passed in a special session last November.
• The Alaska Legislature adjourned its session--the first since voters mandated a 90 day limit compared to the previous 121 day limit--on April 13.  Majority Republican leaders hailed the session as a great success, while fellow Republican Governor Sarah Palin chastised the Legislature for spending too much money.  High oil prices and an oil tax increase enacted last year allowed the Legislature to put $5 billion into two rainy day funds this year.  Gov. Palin has called a special session for June to deal with an oil pipeline issue.

Photo credit: Sine die in the Georgia Senate by Andre in Georgia Politics Unfiltered.

Four Regular Sessions and One Special Adjourn

by Karl Kurtz

The Virginia and Washington legislatures adjourned on Thursday last week, Indiana on Friday and South Dakota yesterday (Monday).  (Click on the map to see which states are in session and which are not.)  Here are links to session wrap-up stories:

• A budget dispute in the Virginia General Assembly caused the session to go five days over the scheduled adjournment date.  Plans are to come back for a special session to deal with unresolved transportation and capital outlay issues.  Here is a Richmond Times-Dispatch summary.
• "Legislative tally: 60 days, 335 bills" is the headline in The News-Tribune's summary of Washington's even-numbered year short session.
• Property tax reform dominated Indiana's legislative session this year, so much so that the Indianapolis Star refers to all the other legislation as "small stories."
• Here's a summary of the final day of South Dakota's session from the Argus-Leader.  As soon as there is an overall session summary available we will amend this post and add it.

In addition, the Louisiana Legislature adjourned its second special session called by new governor Bobby Jindal who "batted 1,000" on the business tax cuts and $1.1 billion in new spending that he wanted, according to The Times-Picayune.

Legislative Adjournment Season Begins

by Karl Kurtz

NCSL's nifty new 50-state legislative session calendar map gives you a quick overview of which states are in session and which are not.  A glance at this map shows that legislative adjournment season is upon us as four states now have gone dark: New Mexico, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming.  The Washington, Virginia, Indiana and South Dakota legislatures are all scheduled to adjourn sine die within the next week.

Last year, in our sine die series in The Thicket, we tried to write a short 3-4 paragraph summary of each state's session with links to newspaper stories.  The reason for writing our own wrapup is that those newspaper links sometimes disappear into inaccessible archives.  That task ate us up, though, as we weren't able to keep up with all 50 states.  This year we'll confine ourselves to periodically lumping together into a single post states that have recently adjourned and providing at least one link to a summary of the session.  If the links go away after a few weeks, there's nothing we can do about it.

• New Mexico was the first state to adjourn its legislature in 2008 on February 13.  The headline of an AP story,  "Legislature adjourns, governor plans special session," refers to the likelihood that Gov. Richardson will call a special session this summer to deal with health care issues that were unresolved in the regular session.
• The Utah Legislature adjourned on March 5.  See "On Legislature's last day, some bills beat clock, others did not" in The Salt Lake Tribune.  Long-time Senate Minority Leader Mike Dmitrich announced that he would not run for reelection after 40 years of service in the Utah Legislature.
• The Wyoming Legislature adjourned its 2008 budget-only session on March 6. See "Lawmakers grade budget session" in the Casper Star Tribune.
• Lincoln Walks at Midnight, the curiously named nonpartisan blog on West Virginia politics, posted Sifting through the 2008 session containing a series of links to end of session newspaper stories after the March 8 adjournment of the West Virginia Legislature.

Oregon Special Session Upheld by Court

by Larry Morandi

The Oregon Supreme Court ruled on February 2 that a special legislative session scheduled to start today can proceed as planned.  At issue was whether the special session, called over a year ago to test the viability of annual sessions in a state that meets every two years, met the constitutional requirements for the legislature declaring an "emergency."  The plaintiffs argued that no discrete, unforeseen crisis existed.  A circuit court disagreed (see "Oregon Court Dismisses Challenge to Special Session") and the Supreme Court affirmed that decision.

The decision was based on written notice issued by the House speaker and the Senate president on January 18 stating that "interim committees of the Legislative Assembly have identified specific budget and policy issues that need resolution without delay," not on a resolution passed in January of last year that declared an emergency.  The Supreme Court noted that "even had there been no SCR 1, the same legislators could have filed the same notice, with the same justification, and their colleagues could have agreed that a special session should be called."

One final note with separation of powers implications:  The plaintiffs asked the court to "look behind the acts of the legislators to weigh and assess the motives behind those acts."  The Supreme Court declined to go there, concluding that "Such an exercise of power by this court would be an improper invasion by the judicial branch into the very thought processes of members of a coordinate branch of government.  We have not, and we do not, claim such power."

Oregon Court Dismisses Challenge to Special Session

by Larry Morandi

In January 2007, the Oregon Legislature approved a resolution to experiment with annual sessions (see "Oregon Legislature Adopts Annual Sessions, Sort of").  On January 28, 2008 an Oregon circuit court turned down a challenge to the special legislative session scheduled for start on February 4.  Oregon State Senator Larry George argued that special sessions can only be called for emergencies and that declaring an "emergency" through Senate Concurrent Resolution 1 a year ago circumvented the constitution's prescription for biennial sessions and amounted to a "supplemental" session.

Senate President Peter Courtney and House Speaker Jeff Merkley contended the court had no jurisdiction in the case; that Article IV, section 10 of the constitution "vests with the Legislative Assembly the sole and unreviewable discretion to determine whether a special session is warranted pursuant to its emergency powers."  The court disagreed and framed the issue as "whether the Oregon legislature has properly complied with the provisions of the Oregon Constitution in calling itself into this forthcoming special session."

Judge Lipscomb determined that the resolution by itself was not adequate to trigger the legislature's emergency powers, but that a formal notice issued by leadership on January 18, 2008 provided the necessary legal backing.  Oregon Revised Statutes § 171.015 requires written notice justifying the need for a special session and Judge Lipscomb found it sufficient.  The case will be reviewed by the Oregon Supreme Court with a decision likely by February 1.