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It’s time for the Oklahoma Legislature to go home.

Earlier this week, a legislative staff member tested positive for the COVID-19 virus. As a result, senators and staff were confined to their offices while testing was arranged for about 30 people who might have been exposed.

We don’t know what will come of that, but if it amounts to nothing more than a close call, it should wake up legislators to the dangers of their situation. Next time, they might not get off so easily.

The current federal guidance on health behavior is to avoid gatherings of more than 10 people. The state House has 101 seats; the Senate has 48.

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s time to get your essential work done and go home. Recess the 2020 legislative session as soon as possible.

First on the agenda should be completing a state budget. That’s no easy task because the process started with a substantial funding hole that is getting larger by the day. But let’s be honest: Staying in session to adjust appropriations as tax revenues shrink isn’t serving anyone’s interest.

The solution is to make the best conservative guess possible, open the keys to the state’s Rainy Day Fund and then grant key policymakers — the governor, legislative leaders and their budget chairmen — temporary, extraordinary powers to adjust things on the fly.

In the ordinary course of events, having elected representatives from the four corners of the state in the Capitol to debate what should be the official state meal or consider some new variation of things already proven unconstitutional is representative democracy in action. But during a deadly pandemic it’s also an incredibly efficient hub for transporting illness. Legislators become vectors of transmission as they carry whatever they pick up in Oklahoma City back to their constituents.

One of the secrets to a long, happy life is knowing when to excuse yourself from the stage. For the 2020 Oklahoma Legislature, that time has come.

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