HB 171-ACCOMMODATE 90-DAY SESSION  9:42:00 AM CHAIR MCGUIRE announced the consideration of HB 171. [Before the committee was CSHB 171 (STA) am.]   SENATOR FRENCH moved to adopt Amendment 1, labeled 25- LS0653\KA.6. He said it does several things, but mainly it starts the legislature on one day instead of having staggered starts. Folks will know that the legislature starts on the fourth Monday in January, he said. It alleviates concerns about squeezing the holidays and about the revenue forecasts. The legislature has always begun in January. Let's just get down here and get to work, he said. The amendment also says pre-filed bills will be released on January 10th and must be to the Legislative Affairs Agency before that. 9:44:50 AM SENATOR FRENCH said Amendment 1 also moves the supplemental budget up by 15 days, and budget amendments are moved to day 30 of the legislature. "You're in a time crunch no matter when you do the budget." This balances the governor's time to prepare the budget and the time for the legislature to consider it. CHAIR MCGUIRE said Amendment 1 is on the table and she has objected for discussions. She said she would like leave of the committee to discuss KA.4, which provides a different start date. This committee prefers to start the same time every year, she surmised. The question is whether it will be the fourth Monday in January or the second Monday in February. She said no one is going to die over either choice. 9:47:38 AM SENATOR STEVENS asked what day the sessions would end. SENATOR FRENCH noted a calendar that was handed out to the committee and his amendment has the session ending on April 27. SENATOR STEVENS said the length is 90 days, not 91. SENATOR FRENCH said the courts have an obscure way of counting that leads to a 91-day session. 9:49:03 AM TAMARA COOK, Director, Legislative Legal Affairs, said the extra day is added because the constitution is written as 120 days from the date the legislature convenes. The initiative is 90 consecutive calendar days, so it will not be 91 days. The committee took an at-ease 9:50:38 AM from 9:51:18 AM. SENATOR STEVENS said he prefers the later date. SENATOR GREEN said she is leaning that way too because of the Governor's budget. CHAIR MCGUIRE said her amendment of KA.4 doesn't reference dates of the budget. 9:53:01 AM SENATOR GREEN asked the timeframe for prefiling. CHAIR MCGUIRE asked Ms. Cook to speak to the amendment. MS. COOK said in Amendment KA.4 the first part is the start time for the session and the little change on Page 3 is the change in the prefile date. "It simply rolls the time that a pre-file can be requested forward by a month." It doesn't make any changes to the rest of the bill. 9:54:28 AM SENATOR FRENCH said a letter from Mr. Boucher notes that the supplemental appropriations and the budget amendments are keyed to the legislative calendar. The governor's supplemental appropriations are due on day 30, and the budget amendments are due on day 45. "So it just strikes me that if we're going to deal with the fact that we've got a 90-day session, we need to advance those in one of these vehicles." CHAIR MCGUIRE said two committee members are absent so she will ask Senator French to table the amendment, but first she asked Mr. Boucher if KA.4 should recognize the budget dates. JOHN BOUCHER, Senior Economist, Office of Management and Budget, said it would be advantageous to the legislature to revisit Section 12. If the session started the second Monday in February, his office could provide the supplementals by mid- February. If it started the second Monday, "we could probably do that by the fifth legislative day, which would give you longer to contemplate it." The amended budget could be provided by the fifteenth day. It would just be a two-week difference, as opposed to Senator French's proposal, he said. Those are the target dates that his office is trying to hit. 9:57:20 AM CHAIR MCGUIRE said she favors the February date because there will be a higher probability of success because the budget is so integral and dependent on one commodity, "that my fear is that if we start earlier, that we will end up extending our session." SENATOR FRENCH withdrew Amendment 1. SENATOR GREEN said she was given a note that said the legislative council report is not necessary, so that should be checked. HB 171 was held over.