Request By:
Hon. Vic Hellard, Jr.
Director
Legislative Research Commission
Capitol Building Room 300
Frankfort, Kentucky 40601
Opinion
Opinion By: CHRIS GORMAN, ATTORNEY GENERAL; Gerard R. Gerhard, Assistant Attorney General
By letter of March 3, 1994, you asked that this office provide an opinion concerning the normal effective date of legislation enacted during the 1994 regular session of Kentucky's General Assembly, in relation to legislation not containing an emergency or delayed effective date. Your letter asks that we express an opinion on the effective date of legislation based upon adjournment of the General Assembly either on Tuesday, April 12, 1994, or Wednesday, April 13, 1994.
The effective date of legislation is governed by Section 55 of the Constitution of Kentucky, which provides:
No act, except general appropriation bills, shall become a law until ninety days after the adjournment of the session at which it was passed, except in cases of emergency, when, by the concurrence of a majority of the members elected to each House of the General Assembly, by a yea and nay vote entered upon their journals, an act may become a law when approved by the governor, but the reasons for the emergency that justifies this action must be set out at length in the journal of each House.
(Emphasis added.)
The language "ninety days after adjournment" (emphasis added), as used in Section 55 of Kentucky's Constitution (above), indicates that the day of adjournment (meaning day of final adjournment for the session, termed "adjournment sine die") is to be excluded in computing the 90 day period set forth in the above cited Constitutional provision, and that the 90th day shall be included in the period, in order that 90 full days shall pass after enactment of certain legislation, before the legislation becomes effective. Applying the above indicated analysis to the dates of adjournment indicated in your letter, the results are as described below.
Adjournment Tuesday, April 12, 1994
If the 1994 Regular Session of the Kentucky General Assembly adjourns on Tuesday, April 12, 1994, it is the opinion of this office that the normal effective date of legislation enacted during such session, in the case of legislation other than general appropriation bills, and enactments not containing an emergency provision or a delayed effective date, is Tuesday, July 12, 1994.
Adjournment Wednesday, April 13, 1994
If, on the other hand, the 1994 Regular Session of the Kentucky General Assembly adjourns on Wednesday, April 13, 1994, it is the opinion of this office that the normal effective date of legislation enacted during such session, in the case of legislation other than general appropriation bills, and enactments not containing an emergency provision or a delayed effective date, is Wednesday, July 13, 1994.