Group wants to slim down Oklahoma Constitution

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- Oklahoma's voluminous state constitution has been expanding rapidly since its inception in 1907. <br><br>"Oklahoma is now amending amendments to amendments," said University

Monday, April 3rd 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- Oklahoma's voluminous state constitution has been expanding rapidly since its inception in 1907.

"Oklahoma is now amending amendments to amendments," said University of Oklahoma professor Danney Goble.

In fact, the state constitution has been amended 133 times out of 274 amendments proposed between 1907 and 1990.

The additions bring the word count up to about 77,000, reportedly making the state's guiding document one of the longest of its kind on earth.

It's 10 times longer than the U.S. Constitution and is also one of the most convoluted, say members of the Oklahoma Academy, a nonpartisan public policy organization that wants to pare and revise it.

There have been at least five major attempts to write a new state constitution, but so far Oklahomans have been content to just keep changing the old one, said Goble, a keynote speaker for the academy's annual conference this week in Tulsa.

For example, Article X, which deals with revenue, has been changed more than 40 times.

The first amendment passed the same day the constitution was approved.

"The state, in some respects, has been in a continuous constitutional convention," Goble said.

Drafted in an era of great public distrust of power, the constitution included details normally left to elected officials and state agencies, Goble said.

But even more dangerous than the constitution's length is the fact that many of its provisions are simply ignored today, he said.

One provision requires all bills to be read in full three times on the chamber floor before a vote is taken -- clearly an unworkable task in an age where general appropriation bills run into hundreds of pages.

Another routinely ignored provision requires statewide votes at least once every 20 years on a constitutional convention.