Things are getting busier at the Capitol in the run-up to the start of the 2008 legislative session.
I am working on legislation I would like to have introduced. I will write in the future about some of that legislation.
An interesting thing to note about this year's legislative session is that the State Constitution prevents individual legislators from introducing legislation other than certain budget bills. It is an arcane rule. Here is a description of it:
This might sound like a big difference, but it is really not. The reality is that legislation never goes anywhere without the support of committees, so this only requires obtaining support of committee chairpersons for my ideas sooner in the legislative session that I had to last year.
I am working on legislation I would like to have introduced. I will write in the future about some of that legislation.
An interesting thing to note about this year's legislative session is that the State Constitution prevents individual legislators from introducing legislation other than certain budget bills. It is an arcane rule. Here is a description of it:
Anyway, the result is that, for the most part, the legislation I am trying to bring before the legislature on behalf of the people I represent must be introduced by committees instead of by me, individually.GUIDELINES DESCRIBING THE STATE CONSTITUTION'S AND JOINT RULES' RESTRICTIONS ON THE INTRODUCTION OF BILLS DURING EVEN-YEAR SESSIONS
- The State Constitution and the Legislature's Joint Rules restrict the introduction of bills and resolutions during even-year sessions to the following:
By Individual Members: Bills and resolutions that relate to budgetary, revenue or financial matters
By Committees: Bills and resolutions on any subject
- By Legislative Leaders: Bills and resolutions certified as emergencies by the Speaker and President Pro Tempore
- The Legislative Commissioners' Office is permitted to draft only those bills and resolutions that meet these requirements. To help members determine whether a proposal is constitutionally permitted, these guidelines are issued before each even-year session. Legislative leadership has approved these guidelines over the years.
- The legislative history of the constitutional provision clearly indicates an intent by the General Assembly to allow proposed bills and resolutions by members only if the "principal purpose" relates to budgetary, revenue or financial matters.
- 1) Types Of Bills That Individual Members May Introduce:
- Revenue bills or bills directly affecting state revenues - e.g., the imposition, increase or reduction of a tax or fee.
- Appropriation bills relating to existing agencies or programs - e.g., an increase or decrease in the amount of the prior year's appropriation for an existing agency or program.
- Bills authorizing bonds for an existing program.
- Bills whose principal purpose is to save the state money.
- 2) Types Of Bills That Individual Members May Not Introduce:
- Bills establishing a new agency or program, even if they carry or require an appropriation.
b) Bills without any fiscal impact, even if they may have a fiscal impact in the future.
c) Bills concerned solely with local finances or taxes, unless their passage would have a direct effect on state finances.
- Simply adding a tax, fee, or appropriation to a bill that is not on a budgetary, revenue or financial matter does not make the bill constitutionally permissible. (See above re the "principal purpose" requirement.)
- If LCO cannot prepare a proposed bill for a member based on these guidelines, we will suggest that the member talk with the appropriate committee about raising a bill on the subject.
- Prepared by Legislative Commissioners' Office
This might sound like a big difference, but it is really not. The reality is that legislation never goes anywhere without the support of committees, so this only requires obtaining support of committee chairpersons for my ideas sooner in the legislative session that I had to last year.
