Gov. Jack Dalrymple called a special session to convene August 2.

The session is needed to address North Dakota’s budget shortfall, and it is expected to last three days.

The House agreed to a bill allowing the governor to dip into the state’s rainy day fund to fill a deficit in the budget.

Lawmakers returned for a special session on Tuesday, June 28, to take up the issue, and the Senate quickly passed the measure. The House, however, required a second day but eventually agreed to the plan and adjourned the special session on June 29.

The deficit was the result of tax collections falling below expectations since the fiscal year began last July.

A special session could be looming in Mississippi as the state continues to deal with budget woes.

Gov. Phil Bryant is currently considering calling lawmakers back into session to balance the budget. This may require the use of back-up funds and could cause a protracted fight to rework the current budget.

This would be Bryant’s sixth special session since taking office.

Photo of Gov. Phil Bryant by U.S. Department of Agriculture on Wikimedia Commons.

The 2016 session of the 87th General Assembly adjourned on Friday, April 29, 2016.

The House and Senate have agreed to continue state funding for Planned Parenthood clinics and to double the state tax credit for adoptions.

Legislators also approved a state budget of $7.35 billion, effective for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2017.

The 109th Tennessee General Assembly adjourned sine die on Friday, April 22, 2016. The legislature approved a $34.9 billion budget for the upcoming fiscal year and passed the governor’s proposal increasing school funding.

Just prior to adjournment, lawmakers were able to strip funding for the University of Tennessee’s Office for Diversity and Inclusion but failed to override Gov. Haslam’s veto of a bill declaring the Bible the official state book.

Photo of the Tennessee state capitol house floor by Ichabod on Wikimedia Commons.

With still no budget agreement for the state, the Alabama Legislature adjourned its special session sine die on Tuesday, August 11, 2015. The special session had been called because there was no state budget in place at the end of the regular legislative session for the fiscal year beginning October 1, 2015. Gov. Robert Bentley is likely to call another special session to resolve the state budget issue.

The Kansas Legislature adjourned Friday, June 12, 2015.

The 113-day session was the longest in state history after lawmakers struggled to fix a deficit in the budget.

A typical session only lasts 90 days and each additional day costs taxpayers an estimated $40,000.

On June 20, Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe signed the state’s two-year budget with a series of line-item vetoes. With plans to introduce stronger ethics reform legislation in next year’s General Assembly session, he vetoed all funding for the Virginia Conflicts of Interest and Ethics Advisory Council.

The council, established to oversee state ethics provisions related to lobbying, gifts, and conflicts of interest, is a product of the recent omnibus ethics reform bill signed by the governor in April.

Lawmakers needed two-thirds of the votes in each legislative body to override the veto; the House overrode the veto on Monday but the closely divided Senate lacked enough votes to follow suit. The veto of funding for the ethics commission was sustained.

Photo of Gov. McAuliffe courtesy of Kate Wellington on Wikimedia Commons.