Oregon Public Broadcasting

Oregon is one of just five states where lawmakers normally meet every other year.

Now, one of the issues on the Legislative agenda is a proposal to permanently make the switch to annual sessions.

Senate Majority leader, Democrat Richard Devlin, says it's a discussion that's long overdue.

Richard Devlin:  "The issues have become complex enough in the state that we probably don't need to follow a pattern that was basically put in place when we were largely an agrarian economy, when they determined a number of the factors by how many days it took by horse to get to the state capitol."

The annual sessions bill will come up during a brief special session scheduled for next month.

A change to annual sessions would have to be approved by voters, since it would require an amendment to the Oregon Constitution.

The last time the issue went before voters was 1990, when it failed by just 5000 votes.