How special are special sessions for the Oklahoma Legislature?
Tulsa World randy.krehbiel@tulsaworld.com
As the Church Lady might say, “Well, hasn't this been special?”
With the passing of one desultory “extraordinary session” of the 55th Oklahoma Legislature and the prospect of another looming, the citizenry is becoming more familiar than it would probably like with the peculiar legislative procedure commonly known as the special session.
There have been 86 legislative days in 2017, more than usual for recent years, but nowhere near the 160-day first regular session of the First Legislature, which after all had to write an entire set of laws for the new state.
If Gov. Mary Fallin does summon the Legislature back to the Capitol before the end of this year, it will be the first time two special sessions have been called in one year since 1994.
But one of those special sessions never actually met.
On the other hand, a special session called by Gov. Frank Keating in 1999 actually met several times — for 12 days before the regular session, for several days during the regular session, and for three days after it.
And, it dealt with two completely different subjects — the gross production tax on oil and prison sentencing.
That special session, by the way, was recessed but never adjourned sine die, so it technically encompassed the entire 47th Legislature, or nearly two entire years (1999-2000).
Special sessions, as the name implies, are special because they operate outside the normal bounds imposed on regular sessions. In Oklahoma, regular sessions are currently limited to the period between the first Monday of February and the last Friday of May.
Special sessions can occur at the same time as regular sessions, as was the case in 1989-90 when an intermittent special session resulted in the passage of House Bill 1017, the landmark school funding and reform bill. That session met a total of 53 days between Aug. 14, 1989, and May 5, 1990.
In 1994, the Legislature took the unusual step of calling itself into special session as the regular session's constitutional sine die deadline neared in case Gov. David Walters pocket vetoed several bills he did not like.
Walters signed the bills and the session was not necessary.
The subject matter covered in special sessions is limited to specific issues outlined in the executive order or legislative petition calling the special session. But the calls can be written broadly, as they sometimes are, and they can be amended.
Fallin's executive order summoning the justcompleted special session was amended to include funding for the Department of Health after a $30 million discrepancy in its books was discovered.
Special sessions usually signal intense disagreements between a governor and one or more legislative chambers. In 1987, Gov. Henry Bellmon summoned the Democrat-led Legislature on consecutive days with the demand they pass tax commission reform.
On both days, the Legislature adjourned sine die without taking up any business.
Gov. William H. Murray, perhaps the most tight-fisted governor in state history, called the Legislature back for 40 days in 1933 after it failed during an 83-day regular session to pass a tax reform package sufficient to keep the state from sinking into bankruptcy during the depths of the Great Depression.
The first special session, though, was something quite different. Called by Gov. Charles Haskell in the fall of 1910, its sole purpose was to find a way around a state Supreme Court ruling that a statewide vote to move the capital from Guthrie to Oklahoma City was invalid.
Meeting for the first time in Oklahoma City, an agreeable Legislature convened at the Huckins Hotel and a nearby school and did just that.
The number of total days the Legislature meets has varied widely over the years. From statehood until 1966, it was in regular session only during odd-numbered years. Initially, it started in early January and ran through April or May, but over time the sessions extended into June or even July.
In 1966, voters approved a measure calling for annual legislative sessions limited to 90 days each.
But legislative days in Oklahoma are only ones on which one or both chambers actually meet, so those 90 days could easily be spread over six or seven months.
Oklahoma governors can dictate the terms of special sessions, but they generally dislike regular sessions because they can't control them.
Bellmon, after losing several legislative battles, convinced voters in 1989 to limit regular sessions to the current time frame, arguing it would require lawmakers to work more efficiently.
Whether it has is a matter of some dispute, but lawmakers struggled to meet the new deadline for a decade after it went into effect, leading to several special sessions.
Until this year, though, only one special session had been called since 2000, a five-day meeting in September 2013 to fix flaws in a lawsuit reform bill.
If Fallin does summon lawmakers for another special session, they will return grumbling like school kids kept after class to clean erasers — or whatever the present equivalent is.
Legislators do not, as some believe, receive additional pay for special sessions, although they are eligible for mileage and, for those living outside the Oklahoma City metro area, a per diem. Not all accept, and many if not most actually lose money spending more days at the Capitol.
Special sessions also cost taxpayers money, although exactly how much is unclear. Many expenses are entwined with the overall operations of state government. On the other hand, special sessions tend to distract administrators and staff from their primary responsibilities because they are expected to supply lawmakers with ready facts and figures.
Now, with a second special session looming, weary lawmakers are trying to gather themselves for the regular session beginning in a little more than two months.
The deadline to request a bill for that session is less than two weeks away, on Dec. 8.