Proposition 28 – Limits on Legislators’ Terms in Office

caprop28 Proposition 28 Limits on Legislators Terms in Office

PASSED – 61.4%

Reduces the total amount of time a person may serve in the state legislature from 14 years to 12 years. Allows a person to serve a total of 12 years either in the Assembly, the Senate, or a combination of both. Applies only to legislators first elected after the measure is passed. Provides that legislators elected before the measure is passed continue to be subject to existing term limits.

Fiscal Impact:

No direct fiscal effect on state or local governments.

Proposition 28, if voters approve it, will:

Reduces the total amount of time a person may serve in the state legislature from 14 years to 12 years.
Allows a person to serve a total of 12 years either in the Assembly, the Senate, or a combination of both.
Applies only to legislators first elected after the measure is passed.
Provides that legislators elected before the measure is passed continue to be subject to existing term limits.
Summary of estimate by Legislative Analyst and Director of Finance of fiscal impact on state and local government: No direct fiscal effect on state or local governments.

To read an opinion editorial from Trudy Schafer, Senior Director for Program for the League of Women Voters of California: Yes on Prop 28 – Help Make the Legislature More Accountable

Pros

Proposition 28 Proponents/Funders: Majestic Realty, Common Cause of California, the League of Women Voters, Congress of California Seniors, Californians for a Fresh Start (Los Angeles County Federation of Labor and the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce), Los Angeles County AFL-CIO, Jerrold Perenchio, United Nurses Associations of California, Eli Broad. According to Ballotpedia.org, $2.1 million has been contributed to the campaign for a “yes” vote on Proposition 28, as of May 2, 2012.

Proposition 28 permits politicians to stay in the Assembly for 12 years, up from the 6-year maximum allowed currently.

Proposition 28 permits politicians to stay in the Senate for 12 years, up from the 8-year maximum allowed currently.

Lawmakers can serve a combination of time in both houses, to the 12 year limit. Two years less than the current cap of 14.

Politicians would be allowed to serve longer terms if Proposition 28 passes.

Proposition 28 does not affect current officeholders.

Terms limits, as they are now, do more harm than good. Proposition 28 would slow down turnover.

As the Marin Independent Journal assesses, assembly members have little time to learn about Sacramento before it is time again to leave office. They are also forced to constantly be in campaign-mode.

Changing term limits would allow lawmakers to tackle long-term problems in California.

People with the most power in Sacramento get to stay without limits: lobbyists, staffers, bureaucrats, and more. Term limits, as they are, have expanded lawmaker dependence on staffers and lobbyists, as the Chico News and Review points out.

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Cons

Opponents to Proposition 28: Jon Fleischman, California Republican Party, Howie Rich, Parents in Charge Foundation, U.S. Term Limits, National Tax Limitation Committee

Proposition 28 permits politicians to stay in the Assembly for 12 years, up from the 6-year maximum allowed currently. For those lawmakers who stay in the Assembly, their tenure would double

Proposition 28 permits politicians to stay in the Senate for 12 years, up from the 8-year maximum allowed currently. For those lawmakers who stay in the Senate, their tenure would be prolonged.

Vast majority of politicians currently in Sacramento would be allowed to serve longer terms if Proposition 28 passes.

Proponents of Proposition 28 are not being truthful with what the ballot measure achieves. “Prop. 28 is designed to trick voters into thinking it strengthens terms limits when it does the opposite,” says Jon Fleischman in a San Francisco Chronicle op-ed.

The Press-Enterprise Editorial Board does not support Proposition 28 on the ground that “California does not need to tinker with legislative term limits right now. The state should see how well impartial redistricting and nonpartisan primaries work before considering lesser changes.”

The Orange County Register is unsupportive: “Most legislators serve their time in Sacramento in one house or the other. The proposition would extend those tenures considerably. If voters want to reduce the time politicians hang around in Sacramento, Prop. 28 isn’t the solution.”

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Proposition 28 – Limits on Legislators’ Terms in Office

PASSED – 61.4%

Fiscal Impact:

Proposition 28, if voters approve it, will:

Pros

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