Why Term Limits Strengthen The State Bureaucracy

I write in my weekly column for Stephens Media about my view on the state's terms limits law and its effect on the Arkansas state legislature.  As I explain, the term limits were noble in their goals, but have had the unintended consequence of creating an inexperienced legislature that is over-matched by the decades of experience in the executive branch. I write…

One problem with the weakening of the state legislative body through term limits is that the executive branch of government becomes much stronger. Although term limits apply to the governor as well, incumbent Gov. Mike Beebe has been elected to some sort of state office since his election to the state Senate in 1982, giving him 30 years of experience.

In addition, state employees, including department heads, do not have term limits and often hold their position across many years and multiple administrations. State department directors have decades of experience and know their own budgets and agency operations much better than any state legislator could.

So, if the goal of term limits was to create a strong state bureaucracy with an inexperienced Legislature providing oversight and budgetary approval, then congratulations, it is working. But I doubt that was the goal.

The 89th General Assembly is certainly one of the most inexperienced state legislatures with 40 freshmen in the House and 15 freshmen in the Senate.  House Speaker Davy Carter has just over four years experience and is coming up on his last term.  He addressed term limits when he spoke at the Clinton School of Public Service last week and said he believes they are not working. (Video here around the 22 minute mark.)

The term limit reform I would prefer would be to set a fixed number of years that state legislators could serve in total – probably around 14 years, but these years could be spread in either chamber.  If someone wanted to serve all 14 years in the House rather than doing the two-step to the Senate, they could.  Same for the Senate.  This would create some experienced House members who could serve as committee chairs and in leadership positions.

Of course, all of this change would take a constitutional amendment so it would have to make the ballot and then get approved by the voters – a daunting task.  The state legislature tried to extend their term limits in 2004 and the measure was soundly rejected at the ballot box.