AMENDMENT 39 RATIFIED

Time and Place of Meetings of Legislature; Biennial Sessions; Organizational Sessions; Election of President Pro Tempore of Senate and Speaker of House of Representatives; Maximum Length of Sessions; Compensation and Travel Allowances of Me

All sessions of the legislature shall be held at the capitol in the senate chamber and in the hall of the house of representatives; unless at any time it should from any cause become impossible or dangerous for the legislature to meet or remain at the capitol or for the senate to meet or remain in the senate chamber, or for the representatives to meet or remain in the hall of the house of representatives, in which case the governor may convene the legislature, or remove it after it has convened, to some other place, or may designate some other place for the sitting of the respective houses, or either of them, as necessity may require. The legislature shall convene on the second Tuesday in January next succeeding their election and shall remain in session for not longer than ten consecutive calendar days. No business can be transacted at such sessions except the organization of the legislature, the election of officers and the appointment of standing committees of the senate and the house of representatives for the ensuing four years, which election and appointment may, however, also be made at such other times as may be necessary, the opening and publication of the returns and the ascertainment and declaration of the results of the election for governor, lieutenant-governor, attorney-general, state auditor, secretary of state, state treasurer, superintendent of education and commissioner of agriculture and industries, the election of such officers in the event of a tie vote, the determination of contested elections for such offices, the judging of the election returns and qualification of the members of the legislature, and the inauguration of the governor and the other elected state officers whose terms of office are concurrent with that of the governor. At the beginning of each such organization session, and at such other times as may be necessary, the senate shall elect one of its members president pro tempore thereof, to preside over its deliberations in the absence of the lieutenant-governor, and the house of representatives shall elect one of its members as speaker, to preside over its deliberations. The president of the senate and the speaker of the house of representatives shall each hold his respective office until his successor has been elected and qualified. The legislature shall convene in regular sessions on the first Tuesday in May of 1943 and on the first Tuesday in May in each second year thereafter, until the date of meeting shall have been changed by act of the legislature and approved by the governor. No such regular session shall continue for longer than sixty consecutive calendar days. No special session of the legislature convened in the manner provided by this Constitution shall continue for longer than thirty consecutive calendar days. The pay of members of the legislature shall be ten dollars for each day during the period in which the legislature is in session but not exceeding in any event the number of calendar days for which the legislature is authorized to be in session. Each member of the legislature shall be paid ten cents per mile in going from his residence to, and in returning to his residence from, the seat of government, to be computed by the nearest usual route traveled, and not more than one such travel allowance shall be paid for each session of the legislature. The provisions of this Constitution in conflict herewith are hereby modified to conform to the provisions of this amendment. The provisions of this amendment shall become effective at the beginning of the term of the members of the legislature elected at the general election in 1942.

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