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.