Earlier this month, a pair of legislators from opposing parties floated the idea of moving Montana's biennial legislative sessions to even-numbered years. Their suggestion was considered during the two-day Burton K. Wheeler Conference in Helena, an event that sought to spark ideas on how to organize a more effective Legislature.
Here's an idea: Stop trying to change a perfectly good system. The problem isn't the process - it's the continual attempts by legislators to subvert that process for their own ends.
45-day sessions.
Now, we think Senate President Mike Cooney, D-Helena, and House Speaker Scott Sales, R-Bozeman, had a noble goal when they suggested allowing more time between Election Day and the start of the state's legislative sessions. Currently, voters elect their representatives in November in even-numbered years and expect them to get right to work starting Jan. 2. If our representatives had an extra year to get to know one another and start drafting bills, they might enter the session better prepared.
Sales and Cooney seem to agree that many legislators would use those 14 months to come to terms with the bitterness and animosity often left after heated campaigns. They also suspect legislators would be more likely to mind their manners, knowing they would be facing an election six months after the session ends.
Certainly, the 2007 session was rife with personal and political attacks that had nothing to do with approving a state budget, and which ultimately forced the session into overtime. We don't mind spirited arguments - in fact, we tend to prefer them so long as they're about the issues that we, as voters, care about. But we can't stand it when representatives engage in name-calling and petty partisanship while ignoring the fact that there is real work to be done.
If legislators are inclined to fight with each other, we expect they'll find a way to do so no matter how much time they're given to cool off and gain perspective. In fact, sessions held in even-numbered years would likely just shift the hostility from the start of the legislative session to the end, since lawmakers would probably start campaigning for the next election before the session is quite through.
If sessions were moved to even-numbered years, voters would be faced with the prospect of choosing their legislators in November 2008 and then cooling their heels until January 2010. That's a long time to wait. Some important issues could fade away and others could suddenly become pressing priorities. The things that persuade us to support our leaders today may be very different from the things that persuade us to elect them next year.
Nearly two months should be long enough for legislators to prepare. Not having enough time is no excuse for wasting still more time with unproductive infighting and personal attacks, and Montana's voters are certain to remind them of that.
That reminder should be fresh in legislators' memories as they head off to the next session.
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