Analysts expect the number of special sessions, a rarity in many states, to soar as governors are left with little choice but to herd lawmakers back to statehouses to shed combined billions from the states' budgets.
"The problem that many states are having now is that they haven't faced extremes like this before," said Brenda Erickson, a senior research analyst at the National Conference of State Legislatures. "And in many cases they don't have any options. They have to do it."
At least 14 states - Alaska, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, New York, Texas, Vermont, Virginia and West Virginia
- have already called legislators back for another round of work. Special sessions are also a possibility in Georgia, Minnesota, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Utah.
"They're in the hardest spot they can practically be in," Erickson said of governors in fiscally strapped states. "And they're stuck: They took an oath to uphold the state constitution, and the constitution requires them to come back in and fix it."
The need for extra lawmaking is a familiar trend during troubled economic times. But the special sessions pose a dilemma for many state executives: It often costs tens of thousands of dollars a day to corral legislators back, an unappealing prospect that many state executives say can't avoid.
"There is still much to be done," Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn said in June when he called lawmakers back to Springfield to hash out a state budget. "We must find a way to work together and solve the greatest financial calamity our state has ever confronted."
Still, governors run the prospect of opening political rifts when they call lawmakers back.
Mississippi House Speaker Billy McCoy has decried special sessions as a "terrible waste of manpower and money." Since early April, Mississippi has spent $390,000 to extend the regular session and hold a series of special sessions.
Gov. Haley Barbour called legislators to return earlier this month for a one-day special session to fund two utility regulators left out of the state budget. That prompted McCoy to blame the governor for prolonging the pain.
"When you have a governor who wants to have his way on every dot and piddle ... it creates for a bad situation," said McCoy, a worm farmer from northeastern Mississippi. "It frustrates all of us."
A handful of the special sessions aren't linked to the budget crisis, such as New York Gov. David Paterson's calls for the Senate to return to resolve a leadership struggle and Virginia's session next month to change state law to conform to a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling on cross-examination rules.
Special sessions also aren't that rare in places such as Texas, where Gov. Rick Perry has ordered eight special sessions since taking office in December 2000. He called lawmakers back to Austin in June to finish work involving five state agencies.
But most states that have called special sessions are devoted to hammering out spending plans and slashing funding to cope with fast-falling revenues.
