What if Idaho’s Legislature only met for a short, maximum 60-day session in even-numbered years, to set a budget, and then held longer sessions of up to 150 days every other year? That’s the proposal from new Sen. Branden Durst, D-Boise, who introduced a resolution today calling for the change. “I wanted to basically mimic what they’ve done in Washington state,” Durst said. “The reason is because we’re dealing with some pretty complicated issues, and we’re all citizen legislators.” In the alternate years when there were longer sessions, he said, lawmakers would have more chance to learn about and fully debate the issues, and they wouldn’t be doing so during an election year/Betsy Russell, Eye on Boise. More here.
Question: What do you think of Sen. Durst's idea of alternating legislative sessions, with a shorter one devoted to budget and a longer one to discuss other issues?
D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.
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