The Oklahoma Legislature would dedicate every other year to exclusively writing a state budget under a proposed constitutional amendment approved by the state Senate.
The Senate voted 36-10 for the measure Wednesday and sent it to the House for consideration.
The measure by Senate President Pro Tem Brian Bingman of Sapulpa calls for a statewide vote of the people on whether to amend the state constitution to allow the Legislature to draft a budget every year but only take up public policy measures on all other topics in odd-numbered years. A similar measure died last month in a House committee.
Bingman says the proposal would allow legislators to spend more time working on the budget without being distracted by various other pieces of legislation.
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