The Voice of Business, Industry & the Professions Since 1942
North Carolina's largest business group proudly serves as the state chamber of commerce


An editorial

Session Limits

It is our fond but not certain hope that by the time you read this issue of the magazine, the General Assembly will have adopted a budget, agreed on a redistricting plan and accomplished one other important piece of business before adjourning: agreeing to allow voters to consider amending the state constitution to impose a limit on how long the legislature can remain in session.

Or as you read this the 170 legislators may still be sitting in Raleigh, getting paid but not accomplishing a lot, just as they have done for the past 33 weeks and counting. The session that convened on a cold winter’s day on Jan. 24, continued through the pleasant spring and which was supposed to end during the second week of summer on June 30, officially became the longest session on record when lawmakers remained in session as Labor Day approached on Aug. 25. That surpassed the previous record set in 1989. One senator quipped that legislators had been camped out in Raleigh so long their clothes had gone out of style.

According to the Council of State Governments in Washington, 37 states have constitutional or statutory limits on the number of days their legislatures can remain in session. Most impose a maximum number of days the legislature can meet; some have dates the legislature must adjourn by and a few limit the number of days legislators can receive per diem expense money.

All of our neighboring states have session limits. Virginia allows its legislature to meet for 30 days in odd-numbered years and for 60 days in even-numbered years. Tennessee limits pay and per diem allowances to 90 legislative days. South Carolina’s legislature must adjourn by the first Thursday in June. Georgia is limited to 40 legislative days every year. The Texas legislature meets for six months every other year.

The state Senate has passed session limits legislation five times in recent years, including twice this year. Up to now the bills all have died in the House. If that pattern holds, NCCBI will work to build grassroots support for the concept in the runup to next year’s short session.

NCCBI has advocated session limits for many years and for several good reasons. Chiefly we’re worried that North Carolina is losing, or perhaps may already have lost, the valued concept of our citizen legislature. People who have jobs and businesses to run simply aren’t willing to be away from home six months of the year.

Political commentators have been quoted on several occasions as saying that if session limits ever got on the ballot it would pass with 70 or 80 percent approval. Come November, perhaps it will. -- Steve Tuttle

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