Thursday, December 16, 2010

Montana Term Limits Referendum




House District 33 Representative Kris Hansen
   Only eighteen days until the legislature convenes and all ready the out of state lobbying interests are hard at work trying to influence Montana politics. I have been repeatedly hearing radio ads bemoaning the fact that newly elected District 33 Representative Kris Hansen has introduced a bill to repeal term limits. The group running the ads is called U.S. Term Limits and is based in Fairfax Virginia and they are claiming that Ms. Hansen has introduced this bill strictly as a “self-serving” way to keep herself in office for multiple terms. What these facts twisting out of stators are failing to mention is that Ms. Hansen has introduced this legislation to be placed on the ballot as a referendum to be voted on by the Montana electorate.

Montana’s original term-limit law was passed in 1992 and limits State House members to four -two year terms and the State Senate members to two- four year terms. Since the passage of the term limit law what has been happening is that the legislature is heavily weighted with leadership that has no historical experience so in essence the lobbyists are running our government. Is that really what the citizens of Montana want? The term limit bill was designed to get rid of the career politicians but what it does allow is for a person termed out in the House to then run for the Senate so technically the career minded folk can in reality serve for 16 years. I fail to see how our so called term limits serve any purpose other than giving the lobbyists and special interest groups more say in how the State operates. While it is arguable that some term limit law is needed the one we have now is too short to allow for qualified experienced people to retain their seats.

I admire a newly elected house member like Ms. Hansen that will get to work the very first session to correct the deficiencies she sees in the way the State does business. In addition to the term limit bill Ms. Hansen has also introduced bills to correct problems with annexation, youth court sentencing guidelines, public disclosure, State income tax, school election laws and etc-etc. Beware of what you read in our biased newspapers and advertisements run by lobbying groups. Take the time to follow the bills yourself by checking on the Montana Legislative Website which is updated as the session progresses.

Or better yet – contact information is available on the legislative website so you can contact each of our representative and senators yourself if you have an opinion about any of the proposed bills.

10 comments:

  1. Hi Corrector. Thanks for the post. I'm going to try to run a blog update as often as possible while I'm in Helena so I can keep people updated on those bills you mentioned - and any others that folks are curious about. The website is up at:
    www.kristinhansen.com.
    I only have one post up so far, but I'll get rolling when session starts. Have a Merry Christmas!

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  2. Radio ads are expensive and this US term limit outfit is spending a bunch of money to stop this getting placed on the ballot. Are the lobbyists afraid they won’t be able to buy power in Helena with more knowledgeable leadership?

    I am always skeptical when loads of cash is being spent to convince me of something

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  3. This doesn’t seem to be that big of deal. She is only asking that the people of Montana be allowed to vote on the issue after they listen to both sides.

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  4. I've never been a fan of term limits as we already have the ability to limit terms via the ballot box.

    That said, I see the bill offered by Ms. Hansen running up against some tough opposition. The populace is, IMO, strongly anti-incumbent at the present time.

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  5. It seems like when we termed out the members that had been in Helena for 30 years the state started moving forward economically. I also understand how we have lost institutional knowledge because of term limits. Maybe Miss Hansen can find us a balance.

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  6. Sorry folks: At this point I hope the bill to end term limits fails and I will do all I can to help it fail. If we had not enacted term limits we would still have Ray Peck gumming up the works in Helena. I can’t imagine another 4 years with “Blow Hard Schweitzer”.
    Rep. Hanson needs to realize that she wouldn’t have had chance to serve if we hadn’t voted for term limits.

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  7. Joe - I don't believe this would affect the governorship. This is aimed at the State House and Senate.

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  8. lost institutional knowledge!!!?? WTF That is the whole idea of term limits. Most of that "institutional knowledge" is finding out what lobbists will grease the legislators the best. If the process is requires more than a rep introducing a bill and getting it marked up and read and then to committe and then voted on, then the process needs fixing not the term limits law. Well this may explain where all the $$ came into the Hanson campaign.

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  9. Except for the fact that every time Montanans have been given the option to get rid of, or extend term limits they have voted to not get rid of or extend term limits! Why are we wasting our time? Enough is enough. Move on to the other problems we have! The purpose of leadership in the House/Senate is to instruct the other members. I would hope that if we sent you to Helena you are smart enough to weight the two options presented by both sides of lobbyists and make an educated decision; if you’re still not sure ask leadership or talk to people in your area. In addition, any career minded person as you put it, has the option to run in the house then in the senate then in the house then in the senate and most do not. Many legislators (yes, even the good ones) breathe a sigh of relief when their time is up and they can get back to spending time with the family or grandkids. In heavily laden liberal areas term limits is often our only salvation, case in point – Don Ryan from Great Falls. He was termed out and we haven’t had to deal with him for several sessions. My thought. Leave it alone.

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  10. term limits only turn long term thieves into short term thieves.
    the "club" will see that the money goes the way it has gone regardless how fast it has to be done.

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