Constitutional Amendment F - Constitutional Amendment on Legislative Start Date

Summary

This amendment would allow the state legislature to set a January session start date via state statute (a majority vote in the state legislature), rather than requiring a constitutional amendment with voter approval in order to change the start date. Currently, the Utah Constitution mandates that the state legislature must meet beginning on the fourth Monday in January and if the legislature wanted to change the session start date they would need to amend the state constitution by passing a constitutional amendment by a two-thirds vote of the legislature followed by statewide voter approval.

A "yes" vote on this amendment is a vote in favor of allowing the state legislature to set the January legislative session start date via state statute.

A "no" vote on this amendment is a vote against allowing the state legislature to set the January legislative session start date via state statute, thereby continuing to constitutionally require the legislative session to begin on the fourth Monday in January.

Arguments

"The Utah Constitution now mandates that the annual regular session of the Legislature shall commence on the fourth Monday of January and run for 45 working days. This amendment would allow the Legislature to pick a date, as long as it was sometime in January, and retain the 45-day limit. This is a small change and mostly an internal housekeeping matter within the reasonable purview of lawmakers. It should be approved.", in support of Constitutional Amendment F (Learn more)

Measure Details