WINONA, Minn. – The time may be on hand for Minnesota to have a year-round legislature, State Representative Gene Pelowski, D-Winona, said. The 120 days specified in the 1857 state constitution isn’t working, Pelowski said in a KWNO radio interview. The current legislature was called into special mini-sessions by the governor seven times, mostly to deal with limits on the governor’s emergency peacetime powers to deal with the Covid pandemic. The problem, as Pelowski sees it, is that the governor is full-time and the Legislature parttime. “If we are going to be on parody with the governor in an emergency, I think we also have to take a hard look at what this legislature can do over 120 days and what it needs to do over 365 days,” he said. Pelowski, who chairs the House Subcommittee in Legislative Reform, said the current 120-day cap is an unsustainable stumbling block. “There’s going to have to be some serious consideration here of redefining this legislative process,” he said. “We currently can’t operate under the rules that have been established.”
St. Paul rebounds
The state constitution limits the Legislature to one 120-day session a year. In 1857 when the state was created, 120 days seemed sufficient to do the people’s business. In the rare event that circumstances warranted more time, the governor was empowered to call a special session. In 2020, there were seven special sessions after he 120-day session ended:
> June 12: To address the governor’s Covid emergency powers. Also policing, economic damage related to civil unrest.
> July 13: To address Covid, policing, and state bonding.
>August 12: To address the governor’s Covid emergency powers.
> September 11: To address the governor’s Covid emergency powers.
> October 12: To address state bonding.
> November 12: To address the governor’s Covid emergency powers.
> December 14: To address the governor’s Covid emergency powers.
Pelowski. Is a constitutional amendment needed? It’s been done120 times in Minnesota history. A major overhaul in 1974 reduced excess verbiage to make the constitution easier for modern readers.