Request By:
Hon. Don Cetrulo, Director, Legislative Research Commission
Opinion
Opinion By: A. B. CHANDLER III, ATTORNEY GENERAL; Gerard R. Gerhard, Assistant Attorney General
Opinion of the Attorney General
The following question, in substance, has been presented:
What is the effective date of legislation, other than general appropriation bills and acts containing emergency or delayed effective date provisions, passed during the 1997 First Extraordinary Session of the Kentucky General Assembly, that session having finally adjourned on Friday, May 30, 1997?
As discussed below, the effective date of legislation, other than general appropriation bills and acts containing emergency or delayed effective date provisions, passed during the 1997 First Extraordinary Session of the Kentucky General Assembly, is the first moment of Friday, August 29, 1997.
Section 55 of the Constitution of Kentucky provides:
No act, except general appropriation bills, shall become 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.)
"[U]ntil ninety days after the adjournment" (emphasis added), as used in Section 55 of the Constitution of Kentucky (see above), indicates that the day of adjournment (meaning the 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 90<th> 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. See OAG 96-19.
Applying the analysis described above to the 1997 First Extraordinary Session, the General Assembly having adjourned sine die on Friday, May 30, 1997, we find the following, regarding legislation other than general appropriation bills or acts containing emergency or delayed effective date provisions: The first day of the 90 day period after the session in question is Saturday, May 31, 1997, and the 90<th> day of that period is Thursday, August 28, 1997. When the last moment of the 90<th> day after adjournment sine die has passed, ninety full days will have passed after final adjournment. It follows that legislation (except for general appropriation measures and those containing emergency or delayed effective date provisions) passed during the 1997 First Extraordinary Session of the Kentucky General Assembly will be effective on the first moment of Friday, August 29, 1997.