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Reality Check: The 'No Session 2016' Movement

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- An interesting new idea from some Minnesota lawmakers this year: Cancel next year's legislative session.

The "No Session 2016" movement began the first hour of the first day of the 2015 legislature, when top leaders revealed that they're talking about it.

"I want to make sure first and foremost that we get done what Minnesotans expect us to get done here," said newly-elected GOP Speaker of the Minnesota House, Rep. Kurt Daudt of Crown. "If we can get that work done in a year, that's certainly something that I might consider."

Later this year, the House and Senate will vacate the State Capitol building for the final phase of a massive Capitol overhaul.

And already, public access is limited amid the chaos of demolition and reconstruction.

But cancelling the 2016 session won't be easy.

The state's annual budget is about $20 billion, roughly equal to the annual revenues of Minnesota companies like U.S. Bancorp ($19.6 billion) and General Mills ($18 billion).

And skeptics say complex modern problems require real-time fixes.

Minnesota had legislative sessions every other year until 1971, when many states opened bill writing to the public and professionalized their staffs.

Before then, most laws were written in private, and passed without any public input.

In the 1960s, only 19 state legislatures met annually. Today, Minnesota is one of 46 states meeting every year.

Only four states do not: Montana, Nevada, North Dakota and Texas.

And though it's popular now to complain about the legislature meeting every year, Minnesota voters overwhelmingly approved annual sessions in 1972.

Sixty-two percent voted for a constitutional amendment allowing the legislature to meet every year.

Here are some of the sources we used for this Reality Check:

Nat'l Conference of State Legislatures: 2015 State Legislative Session Calendar

Annual Versus Biennial Legislative Sessions

Legislative Session Length

MN Legislative Reference Library: "Flexible Sessions Most Radical Change In History of MN Politics"

Court Rules Session Change Must Go Before Voters

"The Sometimes Government" -- 1973

Frequently Asked Questions About the Minn. Legislature

Star Tribune 100 Companies, By Revenue

Gubernatorial Addresses To The State Legislature

MN Citizens League: Modernizing the Legislature

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