Guest column: Missouri should keep term limits for lawmakers

2011 polls show Missourians support term limits for state legislators

When Gov. Jay Nixon called for "sweeping ethics reform" last month in Kansas City, he gave term limits supporters in Missouri a reason to worry. So-called ethics bills have become a popular tool conniving legislators can use to undermine voter-passed term limits.

Neighboring Arkansas is a perfect example of how the politicians' scheme works. In April, the General Assembly there referred a similar ethics package to the November 2014 ballot. It contains many of the same provisions pitched by Gov. Nixon, including donation limits and a prohibition on lobbying after one leaves office. Buried deep inside the bill, however, is a secret provision which lengthens term limits from six years to 16 in the House and eight years to 16 in the Senate.

When Arkansas residents learned of the swindle, they were justifiably outraged. Polls show that support for the measure dropped 37 points and into the red when respondents found out about the attack on term limits. The state's biggest newspaper named it "Outrage of the Year," and there is now a popular citizen-led effort to have the amendment struck from the ballot.

This is undeniably a teachable moment for legislators in the Show Me State. As is true in Arkansas, Missouri's current term limits law passed by a landslide -- 75 percent of voters said "Yes" to it on the 1992 ballot. The voters haven't changed their minds. Polling from 2011 shows that 77 percent of Missourians support the current eight-year term limits law and oppose weakening them.

And well they should. Term limits in Missouri have been effective in all of their major aims.

First, term limits have largely erased the surge in tenure in the Missouri Legislature that marked the later 20th Century. Second, in the Missouri House, rotation in office due to term limits has created a more representative body comprising a far broader range of experience. Third, the intended division between the upper and lower houses of the legislature has been improved. While the House has been transformed into a far more representative body, the percentage of the Senate with significant legislative experience remains very high, as many or most Senators serve first in the House. Hence, the balance -- previously skewed toward professional politicians -- has swung back more toward the center, balancing the value of experience and improving the representation and participation of the citizens.

Despite the public benefits of rotation in office, not all Missouri lawmakers are willing to give up on their dreams of lifetime political perks and privileges. Rep. Myron Neth (R-17) is committed to corrupting the term limits that voters love. Neth proposed a bill in 2012 that would have doubled his own term limits, from eight years to 16. It failed, but he has already prefiled the same legislation for the upcoming 2014 session.

Voters should be wary of Neth tacking longer term limits onto "ethics reform." It's a sneaky move, but he knows there's no other way to successfully override the will of the people.

So why are the politicians so desperate to gut the limits? The answer is obvious and the voters know it.

In the 2011 poll referenced above, a full 78 percent of the Missourians said that lawmakers who voted to lengthen the terms at that time are "primarily interested in keeping themselves in power," including 65 percent of Democrats, 78 percent of Republicans and 89 percent of independents.

They couldn't be more right; politicians are capable of pursuing just about any course of action if it's in their self-interest. When Gov. Nixon's ethics package materializes, make sure legislators don't use it to hide an unethical attack on term limits.

Philip Blumel is president of U.S. Term Limits, a single issue advocacy group based in Palm Beach, Fla.