Amendment 448 was added to the State Constitution in 1984. The purpose of that amendment was to encourage the Legislature to pass bills related to the state’s budgets before passing any other bills. However, if the Legislature wanted to pass a non-budget bill before the state budgets, the amendment required the Legislature to pass what became known as a “Budget Isolation Resolution,” or BIR, on every bill it considered before passing the state’s budgets. In order to pass, a BIR needed approval from at least 60 percent of the legislators present.

After Amendment 448 was added to the State Constitution, the operating rules used by the House of Representatives were changed to say that a BIR needed approval from at least 60 percent of the legislators present and voting in order to pass. On general bills impacting the entire state, all legislators who are present at the time of the vote normally cast their vote for or against the bill. But on local bills that only impact a small area of the state, such as one city or county, legislators who are present at the time of the vote normally cast their vote for or against the bill only if they represent the portion of the state impacted by the bill.

Because of this “local courtesy,” the BIR for local bills passed since 1984 may have been approved by at least 60 percent of the legislators present and voting, but not necessarily by at least 60 percent of the legislators present. In other words, for these local bills, the same BIR vote that was acceptable under the House rules was inadvertently unacceptable under Amendment 448.

Amendment 14 clears up this problem. Under Amendment 14, any BIR passed on a local bill between 1984 (when the BIR requirement was added to the State Constitution) and November 8, 2016 (when Amendment 14 is on the ballot) would be considered approved if the original adoption of the BIR conformed to the rules of the House or Senate in place at the time.

If a majority of voters vote “Yes” on Amendment 14, local laws passed by the Legislature between 1984 and November 8, 2016, will be considered approved so long as those laws were passed in accordance with legislative rules in place at the time.

If a majority of voters vote “No” on Amendment 14, local laws passed by the Legislature between 1984 and November 8, 2016, will remain in place unless and until determined otherwise.