The public mood: Poll finds Pennsylvanians favor term limits
Share with others:
The recent public opinion poll by Quinnipiac University should be taken as a warning by those state legislators inclined to believe that the great uproar over the 2005 legislative pay raise has largely subsided. Even if the anger no longer burns white hot, it turns out that the public remains in a mood to favor reforms.
The survey was conducted May 22-28 and asked a number of questions, including the level of Gov. Ed Rendell's popularity (55 percent of the voters support his performance, 36 percent don't) and his proposal to lease the Pennsylvania Turnpike (44 percent favor it, 42 percent don't).
But for those interested in reforming the way Harrisburg does business, the more interesting questions were about term limits, trimming the size of the Legislature and the overall popularity of the General Assembly.
From the last point, all else seems to flow. Lawmakers as a group aren't very popular. By a margin of 47 percent to 39 percent, those surveyed said they didn't like the job the Legislature was doing. This in turn may explain the support for a smaller Legislature -- 51 percent to 32 percent.
The surprise was the overwhelming support for term limits -- 75 percent of those polled were in favor of them and only 19 percent were against. Interestingly, it seems that legislators haven't picked up on the popularity of this idea. When a bill (SB 814) proposing an eight-year limit for members of the House and Senate was voted on in the Senate State Government Committee last month, the vote wasn't close -- 9-2 against. Even in a committee that has looked favorably on other reforms, including cutting the size of the Legislature, a proposal for terms limits was too much.
This newspaper is also a bit out of step with the public mood on this issue. While we don't oppose term limits per se, we do have some reservations about them. For us, the remedy to long-serving, unproductive incumbents is the accountability that voters should demand at the ballot box. Term limits is a poor substitute for an informed citizenry voting the rascals out.
Another problem with term limits is that it puts lawmakers more at the mercy of their staffs and civil servants. Like it or not, the workings of government can be complicated and the learning curve is considerable. It sometimes takes a couple of terms for the best members to understand the workings of the institution. With term limits, no sooner would some members hit their stride than they would be forced to leave. In addition, the institutional memory would stretch back only a few years, which could lead to the same mistakes being repeated periodically.
We wish that it were reducing the size of the Legislature that had shown up strongly supported in the Quinnipiac poll. Still, the poll shows that the cause of reform generally lives -- and that's good news for Pennsylvanians.
First Published June 1, 2007 9:29 pm
