Kentucky rejects Amendment 1, in blow to legislature's GOP supermajority

Kentucky voters rejected a ballot referendum that would have amended the state constitution to allow the legislature to call itself into a special session — a victory for Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear over the supermajority Republican legislature.

With nearly all of the counties reporting from across the state Wednesday, only 46% had voted for Amendment 1, with 54% voting against it — separated by a margin of roughly 90,000 votes.

Constitutional Amendment 1 was a lengthy, 744-word ballot amendment that could have given more power to the Kentucky General Assembly — letting legislators call themselves into a special session beyond the spring and potentially extending regular sessions to end later in the year.

Currently — and what will remain in place with the referendum's failure — only the governor can call legislators into a special session, during which they are only permitted to pass bills that are within the parameters set by the governor, as Beshear did in August to address Eastern Kentucky flood relief and recovery.

Without a governor's permission, the legislature may not call itself back to Frankfort to pass laws after the regular sessions end — which must happen by March 30 in odd-numbered years and by April 15 in even-numbered years.

2022 Kentucky election results: All the midterm election results in one spot

Republicans, who hold a supermajority in each chamber, pushed for the amendment after expressing frustration that they could not call themselves into session to rein in certain COVID-19 policies of Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear. The amendment began as House Bill 4, one of Republicans' priority bills in 2021, which passed by a mostly party-line vote, sending the measure to the 2022 general election ballot.

The governor opposed the amendment, saying it “would turn the part-time legislature into a full-time legislature and would further enrich legislators."

Special sessions cost roughly $68,000 per day, according to the Legislative Research Commission, with House and Senate members receiving $188.22 in salary per day and leadership receiving between $216 and $235.

Kentucky is one of just 14 states in which only the governor can call the legislature into a special session, though the amendment would have made it one of just four states where its presiding officers in the House and Senate could initiate a special session without a vote of the legislature.

More:Voters to decide if legislature can call special sessions. What to know about KY Amendment 1

Under the amendment, the legislature would have been able to extend the end date of a regular session past the spring with a three-fifths vote in each chamber, though not add to the current maximum number of days in a regular session (60 days in the long sessions of even-numbered years and 30 days in the short sessions of odd-numbered years).

The measure also would have allowed for the calling of a special session via a joint proclamation of the House speaker and Senate president, though the session could only last for a maximum of 12 days per calendar year.

While no PACs emerged to spend considerable sums in support of the amendment, Kentuckians for Checks and Balances, an issues committee opposing the amendment, spent at least $300,000 on ads to defeat the measure.

Reach reporter Joe Sonka at jsonka@courierjournal.com and follow him on Twitter at @joesonka.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Kentucky election results: Amendment 1 fails, in blow to GOP supermajority