We think it’s high time New Hampshire held itself a good ol’ fashioned Constitutional Convention.

That’s a gathering of elected delegates sent by cities and towns from across the state to consider amending the state Constitution. They ponder proposals to change the state’s governing document, then make recommendations to submit to voters, who get the final say.

It’s been a while since the Granite State has had one – 1984 was the last one – and there’s lots that could be discussed, including some of the issues that seem to come up in one form or another just about every year when the House and Senate meet in Concord.

ConCon delegates could consider, for instance, whether it’s time to reverse the action taken by that 1984 convention and return the Legislature to biennial sessions. This was an idea that actually passed the Senate in 1989, just five years after the ConCon voted for annual sessions.

You know who would hate that idea? Lobbyists. Having the General Court – the collective name for the House and Senate – meet every year has been a windfall for many of those whose job it is to influence lawmakers. If the Legislature went back to meeting only every other year, some lobbyists might have to take a pay cut if they could only bill clients half as often, but we suspect they’d manage.

ConCon delegates could also consider some of the other issues that seem to crop up every couple of years, including:

Expanding the governor’s term from two years to four and giving the governor line-item veto authority over the budget. Only Vermont and New Hampshire elect their governors for just two years.

As we saw about a year ago when Gov. Maggie Hassan vetoed the budget, the state’s governor can’t pick and choose which items to veto – it’s an all-or-nothing proposition. New Hampshire is one of only six states where the governor doesn’t have line-item veto power. It’s an issue worth taking a hard look at.

Extending the terms of House and Senate members from two years to four and tinkering with the size of the Senate. One c o m m o n variation suggested over the years would expand the size of the Senate from 24 to 36 members, though the House approved a measure in 1990 that would have doubled the size of the Senate to 48. Senators killed it. For what it’s worth, New Hampshire not only has the largest state Legislature in the country; it also has a larger difference between the sizes of its House and Senate than any other state.

Among other issues delegates could take up: Legislative pay – that $100 a year is no longer quaint; it’s an embarrassment – allowing citizen ballot initiatives, whether to elect the attorney general, and all manner of ideas wacky and reasonable.

We’d like to see another ConCon. Some states hold them every 10 years, but it’s been nearly a third of a century in New Hampshire. That’s far too long.

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