Letter from Phil Kirk
 Finally,
Some Good News on Session Limits
Amid
all the gloomy talk coming out of Raleigh about the state’s
budget crisis, it was heartening to hear the good news that the
General Assembly will seriously consider passing session limits
legislation this year. The state Senate on five different occasions
has approved the idea. But each time the bill was bottled up in the
House and never received a vote. Now, House Speaker Jim Black says
that, for the first time, he will allow his chamber to vote on the
constitutional amendment.
I think it would be a wonderful step forward if North Carolina joined
39 other states in imposing some kind of limit on how long our
legislature can remain in session. If we don’t, it is inevitable
that we will see more sessions like the one last year that convened in
January and didn’t adjourn until shortly before the governor lit the
Christmas tree in the Capitol.
All of our neighboring states limit how long their legislatures can
meet. Virginia has a 30-day calendar maximum in odd numbered years and
a 60 calendar-day maximum in even numbered years. South Carolina’s
legislature must adjourn by the first Thursday in June. Georgia is
limited to 40 legislative days every year. The legislature in Texas,
whose population is more than two and one-half times ours, only meets
every other year.
The ever-longer legislative sessions we’ve experienced in recent
years place a tremendous burden on people who wish to serve in the
General Assembly, particularly those who run businesses. For many,
it’s just too great a burden on family, business and career. In the
past several years, because of this burden, legislators with promising
futures have often announced that they would not run for re-election.
Most troubling to me is that we are losing our proud tradition of
being led by a “citizen legislature” — ordinary folks from all
walks of life who serve part time in the General Assembly while still
holding down jobs back home. For generations we’ve adhered to the
simple principle that being a lawmaker should not be the work of
professional, full-time politicians. But that’s only a fond memory
because the vast majority of legislators today are retirees, the
independently wealthy and persons who have found they can make a good
living serving in the General Assembly — as long as the sessions,
with their $104-a-day, seven days a week expense money, last months
longer than they should.
Most people rely on deadlines to keep their lives on schedule, as do
most businesses. If a newspaper didn’t have deadlines there’s no
telling when you paper would arrive each day. And the General Assembly
has shown that it can act quickly when it has to, as when the state
Supreme Court earlier this month imposed the deadline for redrawing
legislative districts. A task which required months of the General
Assembly’s time last year was accomplished in a few days with the
court’s deadline staring lawmakers in the face.
The pending bill calls for a voter referendum on amending the state
constitution to limit legislative sessions to 135 calendar days in
odd-numbered years — the so-called “long sessions” when the
General Assembly adopts a two-year budget plan — and 60 days in
even-numbered years.
The legislation before the House also would make the General Assembly
more time-efficient. Currently, the long session now begins in January
and the first order of business is the election of each chamber’s
leadership. Then, most legislators sit on their hands for at least a
month waiting for the new leaders to assign committees, choose
committee chairmen and complete dozens of appointments that must be
made before bills can be discussed and legislation approved.
Under the bill before the House, each chamber would come into session
briefly right after the election, choose its leaders and then adjourn
for a month while the House and Senate leaders get their chambers
organized.
Without session limits, the ideal of the citizen legislature is doomed
to become a relic of the past and the pool of qualified people willing
to spend months away from their jobs and their families to serve in
public office will dwindle even further.
It’s my hope that last year’s legislative session and its dubious
distinction of being the longest in state history will prompt the
House to finally go along with the Senate and put session limits
legislation on the ballot for you to vote on.
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