Some states allow lame-duck sessions of their legislature under special circumstances or emergencies. In Pennsylvania, it's virtually a given that such a session will take place every two years.

The problem with such a session is that it allows lawmakers to avoid sensitive, controversial issues until after the November election. The lame ducks — lawmakers who were not re-elected and will be replaced on Dec. 1 — are able to cast controversial or deciding votes.

Such sessions invite abuse due to the lame-duck lawmakers' diminished accountability to the voters.

Timothy Potts, co-founder of the reform advocacy group Democracy Rising PA, is on target in pointing out that "there's nothing that legislators do that is so important that it can't wait until January."

The General Assembly has proven time and again over the last four decades that two important things need to happen in Harrisburg.

First, a strict limit needs to be placed on the number of days lawmakers are allowed to be in session — and one constrained to a more compressed time frame than the open-ended scenario that currently exists. Second, lame-duck sessions must be prohibited except for emergencies or special, truly extraordinary circumstances.

Very few states have lame-duck sessions with Pennsylvania's regularity. Meanwhile, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, Pennsylvania is one of only a dozen states that do not limit the length of their legislative sessions by constitution, statute, chamber rule or some other method.

The availability of lame-duck sessions and the lack of strict limits on the number of legislative days available are components of the partisan quicksand that has consistently stymied progress on legislation in this state.

Unfortunately, that quicksand seems to have become more consuming with each successive year.

The group Common Cause of Pennsylvania wants the General Assembly to complete its work by the end of September in election years, so the voters will be able to judge lawmakers' full two-year records before going to the polls in November.

That also would enable the voters to judge the performance and veto record of their governor.

Barry Kauffman, Common Cause executive director, has likened the current lame-duck situation to a high school teacher who is forced to give her students their grades before they take their final examination.

Lawmakers in Harrisburg like to refer to the lame-duck session as "sine die," one definition of which is "for an indefinite period." That term doesn't carry the negative implication of "lame duck," but it doesn't make the last-minute legislative rush any more desirable.

The continuing voter furor over the July 7, 2005, middle-of-the-night legislative pay raise is sending more incumbent lawmakers to the sidelines than usual — including two top Senate leaders who were defeated for re-election in the spring primary. Those two leaders would do the state a favor by balking at the idea of a lame-duck session this year — and publicly encouraging remaining colleagues to begin taking steps to ban the practice, except for emergencies.

Pennsylvanians have not had much to be proud of in terms of their lawmakers' performance for a number of years. Implementing positive reforms for streamlining legislative performance, and eliminating opportunities for legislative shenanigans, could nurture optimism for the future.

It would be uplifting if Butler County legislators were at the forefront in bringing about such positive change.