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End Collective Bargaining for State Employees |
Eliminate Term Limits Eliminating term limits is not a separate initiative; it is part of the initiative to eliminate the Senate. We want to eliminate term limits for legislators because they are undemocratic. We believe in democracy. Article IV, Section 54 of the current Constitution limits representatives to three 2-year terms, a total of six years. (Senators are limited to two 4-year terms.) We believe that citizens should not be denied the opportunity to re-elect a representative they are happy with - or at least prefer over other candidates. It is true that incumbent representatives have advantages over opponents such as being able to send newsletters to constituents at taxpayer expense, and that some may get too accustomed to the attentions and generosity of Lansing lobbyists. Some are unaffected, however, and only grow more skilful and effective with experience. Michigan voters must be be allowed to keep their current representative rather than being forced to choose someone else. Some people think that much of the reason our legislature can't seem to meet deadlines for completing a budget - or accomplish much of anything - is lack of experience. Legislators just don't get to serve long enough to learn the ropes. The Lansing State Journal reported 7/19/10 that over half of current legislators will be gone by the end of 2010:
Term limits are an insult to the intelligence of voters. Every two years, we have two opportunities to pick someone other than the incumbent representative: the primary election and the general election. With the Internet, we have access to a lot more candidate information than we had in past years. We are capable of deciding. We don't need to use term limits to lock ourselves into what might turn out to be a bad choice. I suspect that most of us personally feel capable of determining when a challenger is the better candidate than the incumbent; it's those other idiots who can't be trusted. By the way, term limits became law in 1992 as a result of an initiative petition. |