Want a laugh? A couple of legislators are trying to tell us if we want better government, we have to keep them in office longer.
More good policies? More of them.
Rep. Rick Kriseman, D-St. Petersburg, filed a bill Thursday that aims to kill Florida's current term-limit structure. According to House Joint Resolution 207, eight years isn't enough anymore. Twelve is better. Give Florida legislators 12 years and they can fix the twisted political culture in Tallahassee, Kriseman says.
Over in the Senate Mike Bennett, R-Bradenton, has filed a similar bill.
This legislation is about as bad an idea as I've heard so far this pre-session. Increased terms of office are not, as Kriseman said, the way "to tame the influence of money in politics and do away with Florida's never-ending campaign cycles." Without campaign finance reform, the money will stay the same -- long-suffering donors won't get the break they think, candidates will simply start fund-raising earlier and keep at it longer. And all the new cycles will do is lessen legislators' travails, nobody else's -- certainly not the voters'.
But let's look at other reasons why we don't want to let this turkey of a bill strut too far down the road.
The term limits law, as it stands, is solid. It has the history to prove it. The current term limits structure wasn't introduced by legislators pretending to "improve the political culture in Tallahassee." In 1992, following a dazzling, grass-roots "Eight Is Enough" campaign, it was swept in by 77 percent of the voters. Seventy-seven percent -- that's some plurality.
Why the overwhelming result? Because in the days before "Eight Is Enough," small groups of power brokers in cahoots with elected state officials were "helping" to midwife decisions, with little or no oversight. Because a public-servants-for-life system invited an incubation of the three C's cronyism, corruption and complacency. And the result was a protection of vested interests.
Nineteen years later, should we have forgotten? Should we be messing with such iron-clad approval? No. "Eight Is Enough" was a storming of the Bastille. It was a revolution.
State legislators would get a better deal than members of Congress. Here's how the new 12-year term limit would break down: State senators would serve six years instead of four, as they do now; state representatives, instead of having to run every other year, would get four-year terms.
Kriseman and Bennett want state senators to serve longer than the governor. Worse, they want them to have the same job security as, say, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio -- in Washington for a six-year term.
And they want to give state representatives a bigger break than U.S. representatives get. U.S. reps are up for election every two-year cycle.
I don't know about you, but in my district we got stuck more than once with a doofus we sent to Tallahassee. And, I promise -- if you haven't discovered this yourself -- it's a whole lot easier on your ego and your peace of mind knowing you can throw the bum out in two years rather than four.
"Keeping experience in office longer" is a common but weak argument. A newly elected, energetic official can learn quickly and act responsibly on key state issues, and bring a fresh perspective and creativity to the decision-making process. It's true, right now freshmen make up a third of the House of Representatives. But pressed into service, given tough tasks early, they can transcend the learning curve.
And consider how energized most communities in Florida have become since term limits went into effect. Citizens who never considered running for office before are coming forward because the opportunity is there. And so is the platform -- right there. All a citizen has to do is step up.
Kriseman claims, "To change the culture in Tallahassee, a place where lobbyists have increasingly gained more power and knowledge than legislators, and where fund-raisers are as frequent as committee meetings, we must revisit the issue of term limits."
No. We must do no such thing.
Give legislators 20 years, 40 years and most of them still won't know what lobbyists know. Lobbyists didn't take away their power, legislators gave it to them. Legislators depend on lobbyists, plain and simple. Even before term limits, bills didn't get written without lobbyists.
Florida is faced with an increasing responsibility to rebuild its quality of living, to plan and manage its finite natural resources and future growth, enliven its business climate and keep its tourist industry and agricultural interests strong. All this requires accountability, transparency and checks and balances. Increased terms of office do not encourage this.
If legislators pass HJR 207, it will appear as a constitutional amendment on the 2012 ballot. I hope they won't waste too much time on it. The fact is, it didn't come from a groundswell of public interest, it came from the Capitol. And if it does reach the ballot -- here's an easy prediction -- it will get clobbered.
Reach Nancy Smith at nancybutlersmith@yahoo.com or at (850) 727-0859.
