House Media Division
A constitutional amendment filed today by state Rep. Paul Wesselhöft would ask voters whether or not they want to replace current 12-year term limits with 16-year term limits.
Wesselhöft said House Joint Resolution 1007 would give Oklahomans a chance to cultivate more experience in their state legislators.
“Each time we term out we lose good people with a great deal of knowledge and leadership,” said Wesselhöft, R-Moore. “This empowers the lobbyist and the directors of agencies, which gives them too much influence over government. This bill will not apply to any of the representatives voting on it. This is for future legislators only.”
Current term limits were approved by voters in 1990.
Wesselhöft, newly appointed as chair of the House Elections and Ethics Committee, said he expects numerous election reform bills to be heard in committee this year.
“There is a lot of support for reform,” he said.
Constitutional amendments are not subject to the governor’s veto, but must be passed by both houses of the Legislature before going to a vote of the people. The bill filing deadline for the 2015 session will be at 4 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 22. Regular session will reconvene on Feb. 2.
No, no, and no. The good people of Oklahoma have *already* voted on this. This is a very bad idea.
Paul, you are going the wrong way. 10 years would be better than 12 in the House, and 8 rather than 12 in the Senate.
This is not the way to limit bureaucracy – we don’t need to reduce their power by increasing that of the legislature. We need to do it by reducing the scope of each agency, board, commission, and department. Cut what they do, cut their budgets, cut the salary percentage allocated to administration, cap compensation for administration (especially for superintendents), things like that.
Or just outright stop doing a lot of things the state does (for example, eliminate the department of tourism, all of it.)
I voted for term limits in 1990. 12 years is enough. If this makes it as far as the ballot, it will be soundly defeated. The only people that will vote for it is the very small handful of career legislatures who dream of being in the state legislature for life (like Paul Wesselhoft).
TDC, read again. This bill or law would not be a benefit to me or any other legislator now serving! Please read before you attack!
Oh, I read it. It made me realize that we made a mistake in 1990. We should have voted for 10 years instead of 12 years. Nobody wants this bill. Again, IF it makes it to the ballot, it will be defeated. If you want to fix your institution, how about making the Oklahoma legislature subject to the open records act, just like every other person employed by the state. Maybe we would learn who is working behind the scenes to push all of these silly bills, many filed by you.
[…] Just the same, this is a sucky idea: […]