Senate Republican leader Jim Hendren of Siloam Springs on Thursday proposed a constitutional amendment to eliminate the Legislature's fiscal sessions that are held every two years and that began in 2010.
In advance of the regular legislative session starting Jan. 9, Hendren filed his proposed amendment as Senate Joint Resolution 1. Its co-sponsors are Senate Democratic leader Keith Ingram of West Memphis and Senate Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee Chairman Cecile Bledsoe, R-Rogers.
Hendren and Ingram said Thursday they've been talking about trying to do away with the Legislature's fiscal session for more than two years and before Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson's election in 2014. Hutchinson is Hendren's uncle.
"It is not a partisan issue," Hendren said.
The Legislature started meeting in fiscal sessions in even-numbered years in 2010, after voters approved Amendment 86 to the Arkansas Constitution in 2008. That vote -- on a proposal that came out of the Legislature -- surprised Capitol insiders, whose routines had revolved around lawmakers meeting in regular sessions in odd-numbered years to enact laws and a two-year budget. Lawmakers also meet in the occasional special session, called by the governor. Amendment 86 limited the Legislature to approving one-year budgets.
Hendren, who has served in the state Senate since 2013 and was in the House from 1995-2001, said the fiscal session has "evolved into another miniature regular session and I don't think that's productive."
Lawmakers are using the fiscal sessions to try to change state policy by tinkering with state appropriations by tacking on special language and it's a waste of taxpayer money, he said.
"I think the concept of a part-time Legislature is being eroded," Hendren said. "We are rapidly evolving into a full-time Legislature."
Ingram, who has served in the Senate since 2013 and was in the House from 2009-2013, said the lawmaking body "was a true citizen Legislature and we've gotten away from that with a fiscal session.
"The commitment to go every year [to a legislative session], to leave their job or their business, is just too much," he said.
But former state Republican Rep. Eric Harris of Springdale , who proposed what became Amendment 86, said he still thinks it's prudent in the current fiscal environment for the Legislature to enact a budget one year at a time.
"I don't know how anyone can predict a budget with this economy," he said. "If they feel like they can do it every two years, good luck to them.
"I'm not there [at the state Capitol]. Sen. Hendren may be seeing inefficiencies that need to be corrected," Harris said.
The constitution allows the Legislature to refer up to three proposed constitutional amendments to voters at the next general election.
Hendren filed his proposed constitutional amendment one day after the Senate voted 26-7 to endorse a proposed joint House and Senate rule change that would eliminate the Joint Committee on Constitutional Amendments. That committee has decided which proposed amendments should be sent to the House and Senate to consider referring to voters. The joint committee consists of members of the Senate and House State Agencies and Governmental Affairs committees.
Instead, the House and Senate committees would meet separately and each recommend proposed amendments to their respective chambers, and the House and Senate would be allowed to refer one amendment apiece under the rule proposed by Sen. Eddie Joe Williams, R-Cabot, who is chairman of the Senate State Agencies and Governmental Affairs Committee. A two-thirds vote of the House and Senate would be required for the Legislature to consider voting on whether to refer a third proposal.
House Speaker Jeremy Gillam, R-Judsonia, said Thursday that "we are inclined to agree with" Williams' proposed rule change. The change would require approval by both the Senate and House in the regular session to go into effect.
"We've still not run it by all the pertinent parties on this end just yet to make sure that we have got that consensus. We know there has got to a better way and we are kind of inclined to think that this is the best route at this moment," Gillam said.
Asked about Hendren's proposed amendment, Gillam said, "There are a lot of significant policy issues that will probably rank higher, at least on the House end, on their priority list [for constitutional amendments] than repealing something that the voters elected to do a short time ago.
"It wasn't 30 years ago or 20 years ago. We are talking about less than a decade ago," he said.
Asked whether he wants Hendren's proposal to be referred to the 2018 general election, Hutchinson said, "The Legislature has the authority to recommend amendments to the voters.
"Sen. Hendren's amendment is intriguing and I want to learn more of his thinking as well as other discussion before I make any recommendations on what should be submitted to the voters," the Republican governor said in a written statement.
Senate President Pro Tempore Jonathan Dismang, R-Searcy, said he expects the Legislature to refer to voters an amendment that would change the state's tort laws, but he's not sure whether the proposal will come from the House or Senate.
"We should anticipate a tort [amendment], but I have no idea of what it would look like at this point," Dismang said. Williams said he doesn't plan to propose such an amendment at this point.
Sen. Bryan King, R-Green Forest, said he also plans to file a proposed constitutional amendment that would require voters to present photo identification before they are allowed to vote. A photo ID law was struck down the Arkansas Supreme Court in 2014 because it added a voter qualification that wasn't in the constitution.
After Democrats gained half of the eight seats on the Senate State Agencies and Governmental Affairs Committee two years ago, Williams, who unsuccessfully proposed an amendment to change the state's tort laws in 2013, tweeted: "So much for tort," and King declared: "I have a better chance of winning a Brad Pitt lookalike contest than voter ID coming out of that committee.
The Senate committee will be made up of eight Republicans in the coming session, after the Senate voted 26-7 Wednesday to require Senate's eight-member committees to consist of at least five members of the majority Republican Party and no more than three members of the minority Democratic Party.
Metro on 11/18/2016