By Rob Moritz
Arkansas News Bureau

LITTLE ROCK — The Legislature’s first fiscal session would begin on Feb. 8 of next year and end March 8 under a bill endorsed by a Senate committee Thursday.

Senate Bill 820 by Sen. Ruth Whitaker, R-Cedarville, also proposes dates for when legislators begin and end filing bills for the session, and details the process for filing non-budget bills.

“This bill simply adjusts to the biennial sessions and addresses questions in the state code,” Whitaker told the Senate Committee on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs.

The committee sent the bill to the full Senate for consideration.

Earlier this session, the legislative Joint Budget Committee endorsed a series of rules for getting budget bills ready for consideration during next year’s fiscal session — the first under a constitutional amendment voters approved in November requiring budget-only sessions in even-numbered years in addition to the regular legislative sessions held in odd-numbered years.

The constitution requires a 60-day regular session, which lawmakers may extend. The new amendment calls for a 30-day budget session that lawmakers may extend for 15 days with a three-fourths vote. Non-budget items can be considered with a two-thirds vote of the House and Senate.

SB 820 also amends the Arkansas Code to remove the word “biennial” and replace it with the words “regular session and fiscal,” Whitaker said.

The Joint Budget Committee last month recommended a series of rules detailing how the budget preparation process would work, including that budget hearings will be in January before the fiscal session.