It Is Time To Re-Think Annual Legislative Sessions For Kentucky.
Joe Gerth | Need for yearly legislative sessions in Kentucky questionable
FRANKFORT, Ky. — It's time to ask a question that you hear on a daily basis as you walk the halls of the Kentucky Capitol: Do we really need yearly legislative sessions that are costly and are producing fewer and fewer results?
We pose this question as the legislature heads into the final full week of the steeped-in-politics 2011 General Assembly — poised to pass fewer bills this year than ever.
Folks who will admit to supporting the 2000 constitutional amendment to allow annual legislative sessions are about as rare as tea partiers who favor tax increases.
House Speaker Greg Stumbo, however, defends the annual sessions, saying they help members plan their year since there is less of a risk of being called into special session to approve pressing legislation.
At this point in this session, only one bill has passed both houses of the legislature and been signed by the governor.
That bill is Senate Bill 110, allowing optometrists to perform certain surgeries and procedures, which sailed through the legislature after the optometrists gave political contributions to all but one member of the General Assembly.
Only five other bills — on weighty topics like reclassifying the city of Pikeville — have passed both houses but are not yet signed into law. And only one of those has passed both houses in the same form.
And with time growing short, only 14 other Senate Bills have cleared house committees and 18 House bills have cleared Senate committees.
That's what $1.5 million of your tax dollars has bought so far.
If the House and Senate follow their calendar, Senate Bills that don't clear a House Committee by Tuesday — before the full House recesses for the day — are officially dead.
House bills that haven't yet cleared committee still have a little bit of life left because of the Senate leadership's use of parliamentary maneuvers that get bills their first two floor readings before they pass committees.
Those maneuvers often act to prevent legislators from filing floor amendments to the bills, and they also prevent members from closely scrutinizing the bills before votes — but they also keep bills alive later in the session.
But this year's session could be historic for the amount of work the House and Senate didn't do.
The 2011 session is the sixth regular odd-year session since the constitutional amendment establishing them passed, and never before have fewer than 101 bills passed and become law.
If you determine productivity by the number of bills that pass, the 2005 session, which saw 156 bills become law, was the most productive. But since then, the number has dropped to 120 in 2007 and 101 in 2009.
Some, if not many, would argue that the less the legislature does, the better. They view most legislation as an attack on their liberties, their wallets or both.
It would be very surprising if the legislature even passes half the number of bills it did in 2009 — and only a few of those bills will be considered important pieces of legislation.
Blame it on a lack of money in state coffers, which severely limits what a legislature can do.
And blame it on politics. Senate President David Williams, who is running for governor, started the session trying to pass 13 bills that looked more like a campaign than serious legislation during the first week — which is normally reserved for organizational activities.
Some wag suggested that the first week of the session was so much about gubernatorial politics that Williams ought to pay the $280,000 cost out of his campaign account.
Few of those bills would have had a shot of passing the House in a normal year — but House members were even more unlikely to pass the legislation because they could be seen as giving Williams' gubernatorial aspirations a lift.
And they wouldn't want to do that. So, the question remains: Is the annual session working? Or should we declare it a failed experiment and amend the Kentucky Constitution again to get rid of it?
Joseph Gerth's column appears on Mondays. He can be reached at (502) 582-4702 or at jgerth@courier-journal.com. His mailing address is 525 W. Broadway, P.O. Box 740031, Louisville, KY 40201-7431.
FRANKFORT, Ky. — It's time to ask a question that you hear on a daily basis as you walk the halls of the Kentucky Capitol: Do we really need yearly legislative sessions that are costly and are producing fewer and fewer results?
We pose this question as the legislature heads into the final full week of the steeped-in-politics 2011 General Assembly — poised to pass fewer bills this year than ever.
Folks who will admit to supporting the 2000 constitutional amendment to allow annual legislative sessions are about as rare as tea partiers who favor tax increases.
House Speaker Greg Stumbo, however, defends the annual sessions, saying they help members plan their year since there is less of a risk of being called into special session to approve pressing legislation.
At this point in this session, only one bill has passed both houses of the legislature and been signed by the governor.
That bill is Senate Bill 110, allowing optometrists to perform certain surgeries and procedures, which sailed through the legislature after the optometrists gave political contributions to all but one member of the General Assembly.
Only five other bills — on weighty topics like reclassifying the city of Pikeville — have passed both houses but are not yet signed into law. And only one of those has passed both houses in the same form.
And with time growing short, only 14 other Senate Bills have cleared house committees and 18 House bills have cleared Senate committees.
That's what $1.5 million of your tax dollars has bought so far.
If the House and Senate follow their calendar, Senate Bills that don't clear a House Committee by Tuesday — before the full House recesses for the day — are officially dead.
House bills that haven't yet cleared committee still have a little bit of life left because of the Senate leadership's use of parliamentary maneuvers that get bills their first two floor readings before they pass committees.
Those maneuvers often act to prevent legislators from filing floor amendments to the bills, and they also prevent members from closely scrutinizing the bills before votes — but they also keep bills alive later in the session.
But this year's session could be historic for the amount of work the House and Senate didn't do.
The 2011 session is the sixth regular odd-year session since the constitutional amendment establishing them passed, and never before have fewer than 101 bills passed and become law.
If you determine productivity by the number of bills that pass, the 2005 session, which saw 156 bills become law, was the most productive. But since then, the number has dropped to 120 in 2007 and 101 in 2009.
Some, if not many, would argue that the less the legislature does, the better. They view most legislation as an attack on their liberties, their wallets or both.
It would be very surprising if the legislature even passes half the number of bills it did in 2009 — and only a few of those bills will be considered important pieces of legislation.
Blame it on a lack of money in state coffers, which severely limits what a legislature can do.
And blame it on politics. Senate President David Williams, who is running for governor, started the session trying to pass 13 bills that looked more like a campaign than serious legislation during the first week — which is normally reserved for organizational activities.
Some wag suggested that the first week of the session was so much about gubernatorial politics that Williams ought to pay the $280,000 cost out of his campaign account.
Few of those bills would have had a shot of passing the House in a normal year — but House members were even more unlikely to pass the legislation because they could be seen as giving Williams' gubernatorial aspirations a lift.
And they wouldn't want to do that. So, the question remains: Is the annual session working? Or should we declare it a failed experiment and amend the Kentucky Constitution again to get rid of it?
Joseph Gerth's column appears on Mondays. He can be reached at (502) 582-4702 or at jgerth@courier-journal.com. His mailing address is 525 W. Broadway, P.O. Box 740031, Louisville, KY 40201-7431.
Labels: Keeping them honest, Kentucky Constitution, Kentucky politics
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