KENTUCKY CONSTITUTION
ARTICLE III
THE LEGISLATIVE DEPARTMENT

§29 | LEGISLATIVE POWER VESTED IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY

The legislative power shall be vested in a House of Representatives and a Senate, which, together, shall be styled the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

§30 | TERM OF OFFICE OF SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVES

Members of the House of Representatives and Senators shall be elected at the general election in even-numbered years for terms of four years for Senators and two years for members of the House of Representatives. The term of office of Representatives and Senators shall begin upon the first day of January of the year succeeding their election.

§31 | TIME OF ELECTION AND TERM OF OFFICE OF SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVES

At the general election to be held in November, 1984, and every two years thereafter, there shall be elected for four years one Senator in each Senatorial District in which the term of his predecessor in office will then expire and in every Representative District one Representative for two years.

§32 | QUALIFICATIONS OF SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVES

No person shall be a Representative who, at the time of his election, is not a citizen of Kentucky, has not attained the age of twenty-four years, and who has not resided in this State two years next preceding his election, and the last year thereof in the county, town or city for which he may be chosen.

No person shall be a Senator who, at the time of his election, is not a citizen of Kentucky, has not attained the age of thirty years, and has not resided in this State six years next preceding his election, and the last year thereof in the district for which he may be chosen.

§33 | SENATORIAL AND REPRESENTATIVE DISTRICTS

The first General Assembly after the adoption of this Constitution shall divide the State into thirty-eight Senatorial Districts, and one hundred Representative Districts, as nearly equal in population as may be without dividing any county, except where a county may include more than one district, which districts shall constitute the Senatorial and Representative Districts for ten years. Not more than two counties shall be joined together to form a Representative District: Provided, In doing so the principle requiring every district to be as nearly equal in population as may be shall not be violated. At the expiration of that time, the General Assembly shall then, and every ten years thereafter, redistrict the State according to this rule, and for the purposes expressed in this section. If, in making said districts, inequality of population should be unavoidable, any advantage resulting therefrom shall be given to districts having the largest territory. No part of a county shall be added to another county to make a district, and the counties forming a district shall be contiguous.

§34 | OFFICERS OF HOUSES OF GENERAL ASSEMBLY

The House of Representatives shall choose its Speaker and other officers, and the Senate shall have power to choose its officers biennially.

§35 | NUMBER OF SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVES

The number of Representatives shall be one hundred, and the number of Senators thirty-eight.

§36 | TIME AND PLACE OF MEETINGS OF GENERAL ASSEMBLY

(1) The General Assembly, in odd-numbered years, shall meet in regular session for a period not to exceed a total of thirty (30) legislative days divided as follows: The General Assembly shall convene for the first part of the session on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in January in oddnumbered years for the purposes of electing legislative leaders, adopting rules of procedure, organizing committees, and introducing and considering legislation. The General Assembly shall then adjourn. The General Assembly shall convene for the second part of the session on the first Tuesday in February of that year. Any legislation introduced but not enacted in the first part of the session shall be carried over into the second part of the session. In any part of the session in an odd-numbered year, no bill raising revenue or appropriating funds shall become a law unless it shall be agreed to by three-fifths of all the members elected to each House.

(2) The General Assembly shall then adjourn until the first Tuesday after the first Monday in January of the following even-numbered years, at which time the General Assembly shall convene in regular session.

(3) All sessions shall be held at the seat of government, except in case of war, insurrection or pestilence, when it may, by proclamation of the Governor, assemble, for the time being, elsewhere.

§37 | MAJORITY CONSTITUTES QUORUM – POWERS OF LESS THAN A QUORUM

Not less than a majority of the members of each House of the General Assembly shall constitute a quorum to do business, but a smaller number may adjourn from day to day, and shall be authorized by law to compel the attendance of absent members in such manner and under such penalties as may be prescribed by law.

§38 | EACH HOUSE TO JUDGE QUALIFICATIONS, ELECTIONS, AND RETURNS OF ITS MEMBERS – CONTESTS

Each House of the General Assembly shall judge of the qualifications, elections and returns of its members, but a contested election shall be determined in such manner as shall be directed by law.

§39 | POWERS OF EACH HOUSE AS TO RULES AND CONDUCT OF MEMBERS – CONTEMPT – BRIBERY

Each House of the General Assembly may determine the rules of its proceedings, punish a member for disorderly behavior, and, with the concurrence of two-thirds, expel a member, but not a second time for the same cause, and may punish for contempt any person who refuses to attend as a witness, or to bring any paper proper to be used as evidence before the General Assembly, or either House thereof, or a Committee of either, or to testify concerning any matter which may be a proper subject of inquiry by the General Assembly, or offers or gives a bribe to a member of the General Assembly, or attempts by other corrupt means or device to control or influence a member to cast his vote or withhold the same. The punishment and mode of proceeding for contempt in such cases shall be prescribed by law, but the term of imprisonment in any such case shall not extend beyond the session of the General Assembly.

§40 | JOURNALS – WHEN VOTE TO BE ENTERED

Each House of the General Assembly shall keep and publish daily a journal of its proceedings; and the yeas and nays of the members on any question shall, at the desire of any two of the members elected, be entered on the journal.

§41 | ADJOURNMENT DURING SESSION

Neither House, during the session of the General Assembly, shall, without the consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other place than that in which it may be sitting.

§42 | COMPENSATION OF MEMBERS – LENGTH OF SESSIONS – LEGISLATIVE DAY

The members of the General Assembly shall severally receive from the State Treasury compensation for their services:

Provided, No change shall take effect during the session at which it is made; nor shall a session occurring in odd-numbered years extend beyond March 30; nor shall a session of the General Assembly occurring in even-numbered years continue beyond sixty legislative days, nor shall it extend beyond April 15; these limitations as to length of sessions shall not apply to the Senate when sitting as a court of impeachment. A legislative day shall be construed to mean a calendar day, exclusive of Sundays, legal holidays, or any day on which neither House meets.

§43 | PRIVILEGES FROM ARREST AND FROM QUESTIONING AS TO SPEECH OR DEBATE

The members of the General Assembly shall, in all cases except treason, felony, breach or surety of the peace, be privileged from arrest during their attendance on the sessions of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same; and for any speech or debate in either House they shall not be questioned in any other place.

§44 | INELIGIBILITY OF MEMBERS TO CIVIL OFFICE CREATED OR GIVEN INCREASED COMPENSATION DURING TERM

No Senator or Representative shall, during the term for which he was elected, nor for one year thereafter, be appointed or elected to any civil office of profit in this Commonwealth, which shall have been created, or the emoluments of which shall have been increased, during the said term, except to such offices as may be filled by the election of the people.

§45 | COLLECTOR OF PUBLIC MONEY INELIGIBLE UNLESS HE HAS QUIETUS

No person who may have been a collector of taxes or public moneys for the Commonwealth, or for any county, city, town or district, or the assistant or deputy of such collector, shall be eligible to the General Assembly, unless he shall have obtained a quietus six months before the election for the amount of such collection, and for all public moneys for which he may have been responsible.

§46 | BILLS MUST BE REPORTED BY COMMITTEE, PRINTED, AND READ – HOW BILL CALLED FROM COMMITTEE – VOTES REQUIRED FOR PASSAGE

No bill shall be considered for final passage unless the same has been reported by a committee and printed for the use of the members. Every bill shall be read at length on three different days in each House, but the second and third readings may be dispensed with by a majority of all the members elected to the House in which the bill is pending. But whenever a committee refuses or fails to report a bill submitted to it in a reasonable time, the same may be called up by any member, and be considered in the same manner it would have been considered if it had been reported.

No bill shall become a law unless, on its final passage, it receives the votes of at least two-fifths of the members elected to each House, and a majority of the members voting, the vote to be taken by yeas and nays and entered in the journal: Provided, Any act or resolution for the appropriation of money or the creation of debt shall, on its final passage, receive the votes of a majority of all the members elected to each House.

§47 | BILLS TO RAISE REVENUE MUST ORIGINATE IN HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives, but the Senate may propose amendments thereto:

Provided, No new matter shall be introduced, under color of amendment, which does not relate to raising revenue.

§48 | RESOURCES OF SINKING FUND NOT TO BE DIMINISHED – PRESERVATION OF FUND

The General Assembly shall have no power to enact laws to diminish the resources of the Sinking Fund as now established by law until the debt of the Commonwealth be paid, but may enact laws to increase them; and the whole resources of said fund, from year to year, shall be sacredly set apart and applied to the payment of the interest and principal of the State debt, and to no other use or purpose, until the whole debt of the State is fully satisfied.

§49 | POWER TO CONTRACT DEBTS – LIMIT

The General Assembly may contract debts to meet casual deficits or failures in the revenue; but such debts, direct or contingent, singly or in the aggregate, shall not at any time exceed five hundred thousand dollars, and the moneys arising from loans creating such debts shall be applied only to the purpose or purposes for which they were obtained, or to repay such debts: Provided, The General Assembly may contract debts to repel invasion, suppress insurrection, or, if hostilities are threatened, provide for the public defense.

§50 | PURPOSES FOR WHICH DEBT MAY BE CONTRACTED – TAX TO DISCHARGE – PUBLIC VOTE

No act of the General Assembly shall authorize any debt to be contracted on behalf of the Commonwealth except for the purposes mentioned in Section 49, unless provision be made therein to levy and collect an annual tax sufficient to pay the interest stipulated, and to discharge the debt within thirty years; nor shall such act take effect until it shall have been submitted to the people at a general election, and shall have received a majority of all the votes cast for and against it:

Provided, The General Assembly may contract debts by borrowing money to pay any part of the debt of the State, without submission to the people, and without making provision in the act authorizing the same for a tax to discharge the debt so contracted, or the interest thereon.

§51 | LAW MAY NOT RELATE TO MORE THAN ONE SUBJECT, TO BE EXPRESSED IN TITLE – AMENDMENTS MUST BE AT LENGTH

No law enacted by the General Assembly shall relate to more than one subject, and that shall be expressed in the title, and no law shall be revised, amended, or the provisions thereof extended or conferred by reference to its title only, but so much thereof as is revised, amended, extended or conferred, shall be reenacted and published at length.

§52 | GENERAL ASSEMBLY MAY NOT RELEASE DEBT TO STATE OR TO COUNTY OR CITY

The General Assembly shall have no power to release, extinguish or authorize the releasing or extinguishing, in whole or in part, the indebtedness or liability of any corporation or individual to this Commonwealth, or to any county or municipality thereof.

§53 | INVESTIGATION OF AThe Legislative DepartmentOUNTS OF TREASURER AND AUDITOR – REPORT, PUBLICATION, SUBMISSION TO GOVERNOR AND GENERAL ASSEMBLY

The General Assembly shall provide by law for monthly investigations into the accounts of the Treasurer and Auditor of Public Accounts, and the result of these investigations shall be reported to the Governor, and these reports shall be semiannually published in two newspapers of general circulation in the State. The reports received by the Governor shall, at the beginning of each session, be transmitted by him to the General Assembly for scrutiny and appropriate action.

§54 | NO RESTRICTION ON RECOVERY FOR INJURY OR DEATH

The General Assembly shall have no power to limit the amount to be recovered for injuries resulting in death, or for injuries to person or property.

§55 | WHEN LAWS TO TAKE EFFECT – EMERGENCY LEGISLATION

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.

§56 | SIGNING OF BILLS – ENROLLMENT – PRESENTATION TO GOVERNOR

No bill shall become a law until the same shall have been signed by the presiding officer of each of the two Houses in open session; and before such officer shall have affixed his signature to any bill, he shall suspend all other business, declare that such bill will now be read, and that he will sign the same to the end that it may become a law. The bill shall then be read at length and compared; and, if correctly enrolled, he shall, in the presence of the House in open session, and before any other business is entertained, affix his signature, which fact shall be noted in the journal, and the bill immediately sent to the other House. When it reaches the other House, the presiding officer thereof shall immediately suspend all other business, announce the reception of the bill, and the same proceeding shall thereupon be observed in every respect as in the House in which it was first signed. And thereupon the Clerk of the latter House shall immediately present the same to the Governor for his signature and approval.

§57 | MEMBER HAVING PERSONAL INTEREST TO MAKE DISCLOSURE AND NOT VOTE

A member who has a personal or private interest in any measure or bill proposed or pending before the General Assembly, shall disclose the fact to the House of which he is a member, and shall not vote thereon upon pain of expulsion.

§58 | GENERAL ASSEMBLY NOT TO AUDIT NOR ALLOW PRIVATE CLAIM – EXCEPTION – APPROPRIATIONS

The General Assembly shall neither audit nor allow any private claim against the Commonwealth, except for expenses incurred during the session at which the same was allowed; but may appropriate money to pay such claim as shall have been audited and allowed according to law.

§59 | LOCAL AND SPECIAL LEGISLATION

The General Assembly shall not pass local or special acts concerning any of the following subjects, or for any of the following purposes, namely:

First: To regulate the jurisdiction, or the practice, or the circuits of the courts of justice, or the rights, powers, duties or compensation of the officers thereof; but the practice in circuit courts in continuous session may, by a general law, be made different from the practice of circuit courts held in terms.

Second: To regulate the summoning, impaneling or compensation of grand or petit jurors.

Third: To provide for changes of venue in civil or criminal causes.

Fourth: To regulate the punishment of crimes and misdemeanors, or to remit fines, penalties or forfeitures.

Fifth: To regulate the limitation of civil or criminal causes.

Sixth: To affect the estate of cestuis que trust, decedents, infants or other persons under disabilities, or to authorize any such persons to sell, lease, encumber or dispose of their property.

Seventh: To declare any person of age, or to relieve an infant or feme covert of disability, or to enable him to do acts allowed only to adults not under disabilities.

Eighth: To change the law of descent, distribution or succession.

Ninth: To authorize the adoption or legitimation of children.

Tenth: To grant divorces.

Eleventh: To change the names of persons.

Twelfth: To give effect to invalid deeds, wills or other instruments.

Thirteenth: To legalize, except as against the Commonwealth, the unauthorized or invalid act of any officer or public agent of the Commonwealth, or of any city, county or municipality thereof.

Fourteenth: To refund money legally paid into the State Treasury.

Fifteenth: To authorize or to regulate the levy, the assessment or the collection of taxes, or to give any indulgence or discharge to any assessor or collector of taxes, or to his sureties.

Sixteenth: To authorize the opening, altering, maintaining or vacating of roads, highways, streets, alleys, town plats, cemeteries, graveyards, or public grounds not owned by the Commonwealth.

Seventeenth: To grant a charter to any corporation, or to amend the charter of any existing corporation; to license companies or persons to own or operate ferries, bridges, roads or turnpikes; to declare streams navigable, or to authorize the construction of booms or dams therein, or to remove obstructions therefrom; to affect toll gates or to regulate tolls; to regulate fencing or the running at large of stock.

Eighteenth: To create, increase or decrease fees, percentages or allowances to public officers, or to extend the time for the collection thereof, or to authorize officers to appoint deputies.

Nineteenth: To give any person or corporation the right to lay a railroad track or tramway, or to amend existing charters for such purposes.

Twentieth: To provide for conducting elections, or for designating the places of voting, or changing the boundaries of wards, precincts or districts, except when new counties may be created.

Twenty-first: To regulate the rate of interest.

Twenty-second: To authorize the creation, extension, enforcement, impairment or release of liens.

Twenty-third: To provide for the protection of game and fish.

Twenty-fourth: To regulate labor, trade, mining or manufacturing.

Twenty-fifth: To provide for the management of common schools.

Twenty-sixth: To locate or change a county seat.

Twenty-seventh: To provide a means of taking the sense of the people of any city, town, district, precinct or county, whether they wish to authorize, regulate or prohibit therein the sale of vinous, spirituous or malt liquors, or alter the liquor laws.

Twenty-eighth: Restoring to citizenship persons convicted of infamous crimes.

Twenty-ninth: In all other cases where a general law can be made applicable, no special law shall be enacted.

§60 | GENERAL LAW NOT TO BE MADE SPECIAL OR LOCAL BY AMENDMENT – NO SPECIAL POWERS OR PRIVILEGES – LAW NOT TO TAKE EFFECT ON APPROVAL OF OTHER AUTHORITY THAN GENERAL ASSEMBLY – EXCEPTIONS

The General Assembly shall not indirectly enact any special or local act by the repeal in part of a general act, or by exempting from the operation of a general act any city, town, district or county; but laws repealing local or special acts may be enacted. No law shall be enacted granting powers or privileges in any case where the granting of such powers or privileges shall have been provided for by a general law, nor where the courts have jurisdiction to grant the same or to give the relief asked for. No law, except such as relates to the sale, loan or gift of vinous, spirituous or malt liquors, bridges, turnpikes or other public roads, public buildings or improvements, fencing, running at large of stock, matters pertaining to common schools, paupers, and the regulation by counties, cities, towns or other municipalities of their local affairs, shall be enacted to take effect upon the approval of any other authority than the General Assembly, unless otherwise expressly provided in this Constitution.

§61 | PROVISION TO BE MADE FOR LOCAL OPTION ON SALE OF LIQUOR – TIME OF ELECTIONS

The General Assembly shall, by general law, provide a means whereby the sense of the people of any county, city, town, district or precinct may be taken, as to whether or not spirituous, vinous or malt liquors shall be sold, bartered or loaned therein, or the sale thereof regulated. But nothing herein shall be construed to interfere with or to repeal any law in force relating to the sale or gift of such liquors. All elections on this question may be held on a day other than the regular election days.

§62 | STYLE OF LAWS

The style of the laws of this Commonwealth shall be as follows: “Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.”

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Text as Ratified on:	Aug. 3, 1891, and revised Sept. 28, 1891.
History:	Not yet amended.

Text as Ratified on:	Nov. 6, 1979.
History:	1979 amendment was proposed by 1978 Ky. Acts ch. 440, sec. 1; original version ratified Aug. 3, 1891, and revised Sept. 28, 1891.

Text as Ratified on:	Nov. 6, 1979.
History:	1979 amendment was proposed by 1978 Ky. Acts ch. 440, sec. 1; original version ratified Aug. 3, 1891, and revised Sept. 28, 1891.

Text as Ratified on:	Aug. 3, 1891, and revised Sept. 28, 1891.
History:	Not yet amended.

KENTUCKY CONSTITUTIONARTICLE IIITHE LEGISLATIVE DEPARTMENT

§29 | LEGISLATIVE POWER VESTED IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY

§30 | TERM OF OFFICE OF SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVES

§31 | TIME OF ELECTION AND TERM OF OFFICE OF SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVES

§32 | QUALIFICATIONS OF SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVES

§33 | SENATORIAL AND REPRESENTATIVE DISTRICTS

§34 | OFFICERS OF HOUSES OF GENERAL ASSEMBLY

§35 | NUMBER OF SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVES

§36 | TIME AND PLACE OF MEETINGS OF GENERAL ASSEMBLY

§37 | MAJORITY CONSTITUTES QUORUM – POWERS OF LESS THAN A QUORUM

§38 | EACH HOUSE TO JUDGE QUALIFICATIONS, ELECTIONS, AND RETURNS OF ITS MEMBERS – CONTESTS

§39 | POWERS OF EACH HOUSE AS TO RULES AND CONDUCT OF MEMBERS – CONTEMPT – BRIBERY

§40 | JOURNALS – WHEN VOTE TO BE ENTERED

§41 | ADJOURNMENT DURING SESSION

§42 | COMPENSATION OF MEMBERS – LENGTH OF SESSIONS – LEGISLATIVE DAY

§43 | PRIVILEGES FROM ARREST AND FROM QUESTIONING AS TO SPEECH OR DEBATE

§44 | INELIGIBILITY OF MEMBERS TO CIVIL OFFICE CREATED OR GIVEN INCREASED COMPENSATION DURING TERM

§45 | COLLECTOR OF PUBLIC MONEY INELIGIBLE UNLESS HE HAS QUIETUS

§46 | BILLS MUST BE REPORTED BY COMMITTEE, PRINTED, AND READ – HOW BILL CALLED FROM COMMITTEE – VOTES REQUIRED FOR PASSAGE

§47 | BILLS TO RAISE REVENUE MUST ORIGINATE IN HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

§48 | RESOURCES OF SINKING FUND NOT TO BE DIMINISHED – PRESERVATION OF FUND

§49 | POWER TO CONTRACT DEBTS – LIMIT

§50 | PURPOSES FOR WHICH DEBT MAY BE CONTRACTED – TAX TO DISCHARGE – PUBLIC VOTE

§51 | LAW MAY NOT RELATE TO MORE THAN ONE SUBJECT, TO BE EXPRESSED IN TITLE – AMENDMENTS MUST BE AT LENGTH

§52 | GENERAL ASSEMBLY MAY NOT RELEASE DEBT TO STATE OR TO COUNTY OR CITY

§53 | INVESTIGATION OF AThe Legislative DepartmentOUNTS OF TREASURER AND AUDITOR – REPORT, PUBLICATION, SUBMISSION TO GOVERNOR AND GENERAL ASSEMBLY

§54 | NO RESTRICTION ON RECOVERY FOR INJURY OR DEATH

§55 | WHEN LAWS TO TAKE EFFECT – EMERGENCY LEGISLATION

§56 | SIGNING OF BILLS – ENROLLMENT – PRESENTATION TO GOVERNOR

§57 | MEMBER HAVING PERSONAL INTEREST TO MAKE DISCLOSURE AND NOT VOTE

§58 | GENERAL ASSEMBLY NOT TO AUDIT NOR ALLOW PRIVATE CLAIM – EXCEPTION – APPROPRIATIONS

§59 | LOCAL AND SPECIAL LEGISLATION

§60 | GENERAL LAW NOT TO BE MADE SPECIAL OR LOCAL BY AMENDMENT – NO SPECIAL POWERS OR PRIVILEGES – LAW NOT TO TAKE EFFECT ON APPROVAL OF OTHER AUTHORITY THAN GENERAL ASSEMBLY – EXCEPTIONS

§61 | PROVISION TO BE MADE FOR LOCAL OPTION ON SALE OF LIQUOR – TIME OF ELECTIONS

§62 | STYLE OF LAWS

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