THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 3, 1997 TAG: 9701030464
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY DENNIS PATTERSON, ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: RALEIGH LENGTH: 43 lines
State senators considering limits for North Carolina's legislative session took a look Thursday at Virginia, where legislators are limited by the Constitution to 90 days of lawmaking every two years.
The abbreviated sessions, however, don't mean fewer new laws, said E.M. Miller, the director of legislative services for the Virginia General Assembly. Lawmakers, in fact, approve about 1,800 new laws in their two-year sessions, about 66 percent of all bills filed.
By comparison, North Carolina lawmakers approved 809 of 3,089 bills filed in 1995-96, or 26 percent of all bills filed. And they were in session 254 days over those two years.
North Carolina's Senate president pro tem, Marc Basnight, D-Dare, appointed a special committee to study ways the Assembly could reduce the number of days it stays in session.
Miller said Virginia has imposed session limits since 1851. A revised Constitution approved in 1970 allows legislators to meet for 60 days in even-numbered years and 30 days in odd-numbered years.
The sessions can be extended another 30 days with a two-thirds vote in the House and Senate, Miller said. Lawmakers almost automatically approve 46-day sessions in the short-session years but rarely beyond that.
The Virginia General Assembly will convene Wednesday and adjourn Feb. 22, Miller said. In those 46 days, lawmakers have strict deadlines for when bills can be filed, when committee work must be completed and when budget negotiators must begin working.
Legislative committees, and 92 special study committees, meet between the sessions, Miller said. But those committees do not meet often.
``What I'm trying to figure out is when the work gets done,'' said Sen. Roy Cooper, D-Nash, the chairman of the panel. ``If the committees do not meet a lot out of session and have only a limited time during session, when do these bills get looked at?''
``It is very intense,'' Miller said. ``Usually by the time a session is over, the members are sick and the staff is sick.
``But I wouldn't trade our system for any other state I've seen,'' he said. ``I like being off in the summers.''