The pity of this year’s rushed, election-year legislative session was many good bills wound up on the cutting-room floor. The danger is this could become our new normal.
The session’s 40 days were planned to dodge controversy to the greatest extent possible. After the final days featured heated debates about guns, Common Core, abortion, medical marijuana and privatizing many child-welfare services, it’s hard to say the safe approach worked.
Yet, that approach did put off until 2015 some big issues: overhauling the tax code; paying for new transportation infrastructure; reworking public-school funding; dealing with under-funded liabilities for state workers’ retirement benefits; ending abusive police seizures of private property; examining ways to improve health-care access for low-income Georgians besides expanding Medicaid.
If all those issues must be squeezed into the 2015 session, or wait another two years (at least), we may be in trouble.
This year featured several reasons for legislators to tread lightly. It’s not only an election year — as every other year is for state legislators — but an election year for the governor. It’s not only an election year for the governor, but an incumbent is running. Not only is an incumbent governor running, but he faces opposition in the primary and general elections.
That exact set of circumstances arises only every eight years, unless an incumbent governor is defeated: Think 2002, when Sonny Perdue beat Gov. Roy Barnes, and 2006, when Perdue ran for re-election. But that’s the only time that scenario has occurred in the past four decades.
Problem is, the desire to tread lightly coincided with a desire to adjourn quickly, because of the historically early primary date of May 20 and the legal prohibition on elected officials raising money (for state offices) during the session. This year’s session ended 10 days earlier than that 2006 session, when Perdue’s re-election primary wasn’t until July 18.
This year's primary was moved up two months because a court ordered Georgia to comply with federal law requiring absentee ballots be available at least 45 days before any runoff elections for federal offices, such as congressional seats. While incumbent governors don't run for office very often, that requirement isn't going away.
So, how to avoid a fast-paced, low-ambition session every two years? Here are some options:
More pre-filing and vetting of bills before the session starts. Actually, this should happen in any case.
Let office holders raise money during the session. Stop laughing! OK, we'll move along.
Eliminate runoffs. This might be an unpopular move. But according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, Georgia is one of only 11 states that have runoffs for primary elections. If we didn't have a runoff, the court order would be moot and we could schedule the primary late enough that it didn't influence the legislative calendar.
Would it matter? In 2012, just 17 primary races went to a runoff, and the leading vote-getter in 14 of those 17 races prevailed in the runoff. In 13 of those 17, the runoff winner got fewer votes than either candidate got in the first round. In most cases, it’s hard to say a majority in a runoff better represents the will of the people than a plurality in the first round does. And runoffs cost money.
Then again, if it weren’t for runoffs, we’d be talking about Gov. Karen Handel running for re-election.
Move to biennial budgeting. By passing two-year budgets in non-election years, lawmakers could take a big item off the agenda in election years and clear the way to adjourn after fewer than 40 legislative days. Per NCSL, 19 states already do this.
U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson, in arguing for the practice in Congress, argues lawmakers wouldn’t be able to pack election-year budgets with pork. That would apply here, too.
But there are problems with biennial budgeting, including the difficulty of projecting revenues out so far. Our legislators already amend the current budget before tackling the next one.
If there are other ideas, let’s hear them — and avoid a repeat of this year.
