Voters might need a brief Alabama civics lesson before they go to the polls in March.

The Alabama Legislature passed a bill during last week’s special session that could change the way lawmakers approve local bills, those that apply to one county or city.

Senate Bill 3, by Sen. Clyde Chambliss, R-Prattville, is a proposed constitutional amendment that will be on the ballot for the primary on March 5. The amendment would remove one procedural step for local bills – the budget isolation resolution, or BIR.

“It definitely is what we call inside baseball,” Chambliss said. “And most folks won’t necessarily understand that.”

The budget isolation resolution has been part of the Alabama legislative process since 1983. During the first term of Gov. Fob James, voters approved Amendment 448 to make the state budgets the “paramount” responsibility of state legislators. It came in response to a tendency for the Legislature to pass the General Fund and education budgets during the final days of the legislative session.

Amendment 448, now Section 71.01 of the Alabama Constitution of 2022, requires that for each bill considered before the state budgets, lawmakers must pass a budget isolation resolution, or BIR. Approval of the BIR requires a three-fifths vote. Legislators cannot vote on a bill unless they first approve the BIR.

Chambliss’ amendment, if approved by voters, would tweak Section 71.01 by saying that no BIR is required for local bills, which usually make up a substantial portion of the bills considered each session.

“It just removes one of those, in my opinion, unnecessary hurdles, that has really had no effect on legislation,” Chambliss said.

If voters approve the amendment, the Legislature will still have the BIR requirement for statewide bills.

It will be the second time in seven years that voters are being asked to weigh in on a legislative procedure few are familiar with.

In 2016, voters approved an amendment to resolve a discrepancy about the BIR that threatened to nullify hundreds of local laws. That came after a judge invalidated a Jefferson County sales tax bill because he determined it had not received the required three-fifths vote on the BIR.

The Jefferson County bill and hundreds of others had passed under an old House of Representatives rule that based the three-fifths margin for the BIR on the number of votes cast, instead of on three-fifths of a quorum, which the judge determined that Amendment 448 required.

Because lawmakers generally abstain or do not vote on local bills outside their districts, the BIR votes often fell well short of the three-fifths of a quorum, which is at least 32 votes in the House. For example, the BIR vote on the Jefferson County tax bill was 13 to 3 with 35 abstentions.

Voters approved the amendment in November 2016, which ratified all local bills that had passed under the old House rule for the BIR.

Sonny Brasfield, executive director of the Association of County Commissions of Alabama, said some concern remains because the language in the constitution, “not less than three-fifths of a quorum present” is not clear and could lead to questions about whether 32 is the correct threshold.

Brasfield said the association supported the bill and is glad to see it on the ballot. It passed the Legislature with nearly unanimous support.

“Our issue is trying to remove questions about how you can effectively and constitutionally move a local bill forward,” Brasfield said. “The real effect is it removes any kind of question that could be raised about the number of votes that were required to get the bill to the point that it could be passed.

“I think that’s important for everybody to understand. The BIR vote is not the vote that passes the bill. It’s not the vote that makes the bill become law. It’s a crafted, some might say unnecessary procedural step for a local bill. And clearly the Legislature overwhelmingly agreed with that.”

Like Chambliss, he knows most voters are not familiar with the subject.

“The average citizen has no idea what the letters BIR stand for,” Brasfield said. “And no one does unless you work your career in this process. I think one of the challenges you always have on constitutional amendments is educating people. We’ll start that with our convention next month as we get our folks a little better educated on this as well. Even for some of our members, it’s a little too much inside baseball right now.”

Chambliss said lawmakers will need to help people in their districts understand the amendment.

“My hope is that legislators across the state, really more closer to the election, really educate and make an effort to educate our constituents on the issue,” Chambliss said. “I hope for a push, say, January, February, March of next year. I think it would confuse folks if we started making a big deal or pushing that out right at this moment.”