SALT LAKE CITY — A proposed amendment to the Utah Constitution intended to give lawmakers more flexibility about when to start the annual 45-day general session of the Utah Legislature is headed to the ballot.
SJR3, sponsored by Senate Majority Assistant Whip Ann Milner, R-Ogden, won final approval from lawmakers after the House voted 50-24 on Wednesday to approve it.
The constitutional amendment now requires voters to sign off in order to be approved. It will be on the ballot in November.
Lawmakers sought the resolution to provide more flexibility for the 45-day session, but still requires a January start date. It also still limits the session to 45 days, not counting holidays.
Currently, the constitution sets the fourth Monday in January as the start date for the session, “unless convening at the seat of government is not feasible due to epidemic, natural or human-caused disaster, enemy attack, or other public catastrophe.”
The Utah Constitution was changed in 2008 to move the start date from the third Monday in January after Utah lawmakers were criticized for beginning their annual legislative session on the same day as the Martin Luther King Day holiday.