Legislatures on 2010 Statewide Ballots

Nov. 3, 2010

There were 10 measures on the ballot in eight states dealing with legislatures this November, and results are mixed. A summary and analysis of these is available below the map. 

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• 2010 Ballot Measure Results
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State Legislatures on the Ballot

 The structure, procedures and rules of state legislatures were on the ballot in eight states on November 2, 2010.

Size and Sessions

A proposed amendment to the constitution that was rejected by Alaska voters on Nov. 2 would have increased the size of the legislature by ten percent.  With just 60 members -- 20 in the Senate and 40 in the House -- Alaska's is the country's second-smallest state legislature.  The smallest is Nebraska's with just 49 senators in the nation's only unicameral state legislature.  The legislatures in Delaware and Nevada are only slightly larger than Alaska's, with 62 and 63 members, respectively.  Measure 1 would have added two senators and four members of the house, bringing Alaska's total number of legislators to 66.

In Oregon, voters have okayed the legislature's proposal to meet every year.  Up until the passage of Measure 71, the Oregon Legislature was one of just five state legislatures that was restricted to meeting in regular sesion only during odd-numbered years.  The others are Montana, Nevada, North Dakota and Texas.  Besides adding an even-year regular session, Measure 71 places limits on the length of sessions in both even and odd years.  Odd-year sessions will be limited to 160 calendar days, and even-year sessions to 35 calendar days.  Sessions can be extended in five-day increments by a 2/3 vote of the members of both chambers.  The last state to move from biennial to annual sessions was Kentucky.  Amendment 1, approved by voters in November 2000, authorized the Kentucky General Assembly to add a 30-day regular session in odd years in addition to its 60-day even-year session.

Vote Requirements and Authorizations

There were constitutional amendments on the ballot in four states dealing with votes in the legislature.  Among these, Proposition 25 in California has received by far the most attention.  Approved by voters, it changes the vote required in the legislature to pass the state budget from the current two-thirds to a simple majority.  Just two other states -- Arkansas and Rhode Island -- have a similar supermajority vote requirement for passing the budget.  California is the only state an FY 2011 budget, and many observers pin the blame for the late budget on the difficulty in achieving the two-thirds vote.

Voters sent a mixed message in California though -- they also approved Proposition 26, which expands an existing requirement that tax increases be passed with a two-thirds vote.  California is one of 15 states with a supermajority requirement to increase taxes.  Under the provisions of Prop. 26, the two-thirds requirement remains in place, and the definition of what constitutes a tax subject to the supermajority vote is expanded to include many payments that are currently considered fees or charges, rather than taxes.

A similar issue was approved in Washington this year, where Initiative 1053 re-instates the two-thirds vote requirement for tax increases in the legislature.  The two-thirds requirement was implemented by Initiative 960 in 2007, which squeaked through with 51 percent of the vote.  The legislature temporarily suspended the two-thirds vote in early 2010 in order to pass a tax increase to help meet a nearly $2.7 billion budget shortfall.  The suspension was meant to be in effect through July 2011.  With the approval of Initiative 1053, the suspension ended on November 2, 2010 instead, raising the bar for the legislature to pass any tax increases in the 2011 session back to two-thirds.  The same individual who sponsored Initiative 960 in 2007 sponsored Initiative 1053 this year, with financial backing from industries that likely fear they could be the target of tax increaess in 2011.

Other amendments on the ballot this year pertaining to votes in the legislature included:

• Louisiana:  Amendment 6 (APPROVED) requires a two-thirds vote for the legislature to enact any benefit to a public retirement program if the change would result in an actuarial cost.
• Nevada:  Ballot Question 3 (REJECTED) would have allowed the legislature to enact changes to the Sales and Use Tax Act in order to resolve conflicts with federal law or interstate agreements.  The legislature would still have been required to obtain voter approval before increasing any tax.

Legislative Ethics Commission

In Utah, voters authorized the creation of a legislative ethics commission.  Amendment D was presented to the voters by the legislature.  A group called Utahns for Ethical Government circulated petitions for an initiative to establish an independent ethics commission this year, but failed to gather enough signatures to make it to the 2010 ballot.  They were still hoping to qualify for the 2012 ballot, but the status of more than 115,000 signatures gathered in the drive for 2010 remains unclear. According to the Deseret News, the legislature's effort to provide for an ethics commission in the state constitution will likely block any future citizen initiatives dealing with ethics.  That's because the new ethics commission approved on Nov. 2 is provided for in the state constitution.  Utah allows for the enactment of laws by initiative, but does not allow for amending the constitution by initiative.  That means that Utahns for Ethical Government cannot change the new ethics commission by initiative.

Eligibility for Office

In New Mexico, Amendment 5 (REJECTED) would have allowed a legislator to be appointed to a civil office, so long as s/he resigned from the legislature before the appointment is made.  Another requirement was that the legislature must not have created the civil office or increased the salary for it during the term prior to the legislator's appointment.

Amendment B in Utah resolves ambiguity surrounding the application of residency requirements to individuals who are appointed to fill a mid-term vacancy in the legislature.

Chart Key

a) Type:  L = legislative referendum; I = citizen-initiated

b) CA = constitutional amendment; S = statutory 

NCSL Contact

• Contact Jennie Drage Bowser in NCSL's Denver office for more information on ballot measures.