This isn’t about which party is to blame—both have leaned on process when it suits them. But at some point, the rules have to serve the people, not the politics. A simple, technical change could unlock real progress.

The question isn’t whether we can fix it. The question is: why haven’t we yet?

Many other states have figured this out. They allow bills to carry over across sessions within the same biennium—because they recognize that starting from scratch every time isn’t governance, it’s gridlock. Letting the clock wipe the slate clean is the very definition of inefficiency.

Here’s the rub: the clock itself is an illusion. The real timeline is the one voters set—when a term starts and when it ends. Everything in between is a series of arbitrary rules. Process matters, but not when it delays solutions or derails policies that lawmakers campaigned on.