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The statewide issue that should be on the November ballot
Published on Sunday, Sep 14, 2008
Sadly, two efforts to extend legislative term limits in Ohio have fizzled since 2005, despite bipartisan recognition from party and legislative leaders and the governor that term limits create roadblocks. All sides agree the most achievable goal, in terms of voter approval, is an extension of eight-year limits to 12 years. That would allow six two-year terms in the House and three four-year Senate terms.
A decade after the term-limits movement swept the nation, at least 24 local governments are attempting to repeal or extend term limits. The New York Times reported last week that elected leaders from New York to Tacoma, Wash., have confronted the same altered dynamics that have surfaced in Ohio.
With term limits, the newly elected are quickly drawn to small-scale projects that can be achieved quickly and generate maximum voter appeal, their eyes already on the next office. Why bother, if it takes years to master legislative mechanics and develop the personal connections to tackle substantive issues? Thus, lobbyists and those toiling in the bureaucracy become a powerful branch of government.
So far, efforts to alter term limits have generally been unsuccessful. Still, should initiatives at the local level succeed, the momentum created in the 1990s might reverse, and for exactly the same reason it started: frustration with government inaction.
Given politicians' fears about being perceived as self-serving, the best route to the ballot in Ohio would be a broad-based citizens' coalition leading a petition drive after the dust has settled this year. Every interest group imaginable, from one end of the political spectrum to the other, complains about how difficult it often is bringing legislators up to speed on complicated issues. Together, these groups could bring Ohio voters up to speed on the damage term limits have done to moving the state forward.
Get the full article here.
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