I was surprised last week when Senator Floyd Prozanski introduced a vehicular homicide bill (SB 1058) with just a week left in the session. Knowing how long it takes to push a bill through the system, it was obvious the bill had no chance of passing.
So what was the point? I wondered the same thing. Luckily, this site is read by some very smart people. One of them is regular commenter (and lawyer) Cecil. She had this to say about Prozanski’s strategy:
“My guess is that they are setting it up for the next session – kind of a “running it up the flagpole and see if it flies” sort of thing. By putting it out there now, while emotions on both sides are running high, they will be able to see what kind of reactions there will be and, in the next session, they will be able to tailor their approach, presentation and arguments to defeat any opposition. So it’s not really pointless to bring it up now – instead, it gives them a year and a half to make it bullet-proof.”
So it’s safe to say that we haven’t heard the end of this, we’ll just have to wait until the next session in 2009. Now, can someone tell me why our legislature only meets every other year?