Mike Motschenbacher , Bismarck

On the November 8th ballot voters are going to vote on term limits. It is very important that the voters know all the facts prior to doing so.

The first fact is that this measure only institutes term limits for the Governor and State Legislators. This measure does not affect any statewide elected officials such as Attorney General, Tax Commissioner, or Secretary of State for example. It also does not affect any Federal seats.

The second fact is that ND Legislators are only part time. They only serve 80 days every other year. Once a legislator has finished his or her entire first elected term, they will only have a maximum of 160 days served in the legislature. If re-elected, they will get 320 days to serve their ND District which is the equivalent of less than one year. If the term limit measure passes, our most experienced legislators when starting their fourth and final session will only have 240 days of experience in the legislature. You will have committee chairs with only 80-160 days of experience being the lead for that committee. You will have the chairman of the appropriations committee who basically holds the pen to the checkbook for North Dakota being grossly inexperienced. This is simply not a good idea.

The third fact is that 6 of the 15 states that have passed term limits on legislators have now reversed those decisions as they saw the consequences of those actions and/or were found unconstitutional.

To be effective, the ND Legislature needs a good mix of experienced legislators who possess the institutional knowledge, and a good wave of “new blood” that can bring fresh ideas to the legislature. This mix has been very effective in North Dakota for decades. This is proven by the great financial state that we are currently in and have been for nearly 30 years. There is no reason to institute legislative term limits in North Dakota.

If our legislature was a full-time legislature and met year-round, this would not be as big of a deal. But we do not have that and as a result, the inexperience will start to show after the legislators who have the institutional knowledge are forced to leave office. The state will be run by lobbyists and bureaucrats who will easily be able to influence a large group of inexperienced legislators. It takes several sessions to wrap one’s head around all the major issues that our state faces, and by only giving legislators 320 days to serve over two elected terms, we will be in trouble.

I would strongly urge anyone who is considering voting for this measure to reconsider. Know the facts and the unintended consequences of your vote. ND citizens already can vote for whichever candidate they want and anyone in our state can run for office should they choose to. On the surface, term limits for legislators sound great, but in reality, they will only hurt our state.