The second of three amendments to the Arkansas Constitution referred from the Arkansas Legislature to the voters this November changes the status of "term limits" in the Arkansas General Assembly.
The biggest change is a "come back" clause, meaning that once a legislator has reached the maximum number of years of service under term limits — that legislator must lay out of the Legislature for four years — but then, under this proposal, is eligible to "come back" and run for the Legislature again.
Currently, once a legislator has reached the "term limits," the legislator is forever prohibited by the Arkansas Constitution from serving in the General Assembly again.
However, this new "come back" clause found in Issue No. 2, does not set a limit to how long the "come back" provision of terms could be. It appears to reset the term limit barrier, allowing a legislator, if elected after laying out for a four-year prohibition of service, another full set of terms under the proposal.
Another significant change found in Issue No. 2 is reducing the current term limits from 16 years down to 12 years before a term limits prohibition kicks in for legislators.
The title of Issue No. 2 is: A Constitutional Amendment to be known as the "Arkansas Terms Limits Amendment:" and amending the term limits applicable to members of the General Assembly.
The current term limits for state House of Representatives is 16 years, and the same 16 years applies to the state Senate. Currently, a combination of House and Senate terms cannot exceed 16 years total.
Should Issue No. 2 pass with voter approval in November, that all will change. The length of consecutive service will be reduced to 12 years, but after sitting out four years, a legislator may be re-elected and serve again for 12 more years.
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, the national average of term limits for states that have term limits is 16 years per each office.
That equates into eight (two-year terms) in the House or four (four-year terms) in the State Senate, or a combination of the two.
The National Conference of State Legislature study on term limits does limit those "come back" solons to only about five-to-10 percent of all term-limited politicians.
Issue No. 2 is being proposed because some national term-limit groups from out of state are urging citizens and public policy groups in the state to seek to drastically dial back term limits to as few as six years for House members and eight years for state Senators.
Arkansas tried those meager term limits back in the early 1990s and have since twice changed that module — each time by Referred Act —to lengthen term limits for members of the General Assembly.
Voters may seem confused, but need to stop and consider this: Would some elected state House or state Senators be "re-electable" by voters after laying out four years after being term-limited under the new rules? It is possible.
Could a term-limited House member with 12 years of previous legislative service come back after a two-term layoff and defeat a two-termed incumbent?
Could a former state Senator after 12 years in the senate defeat a new one-term Senator for re-election?
Could these legislative seats, become political dynasties, held by the same politician's "family members" — i.e. wives, husbands, children of the former solon during the four-year hiatus — and the "new family member" simply not seek re-election, when the old solon, who is now past the prohibitive term, files to run again?
Anything, of course, is possible in Arkansas politics.
Remember, this issue has absolutely nothing to do with the federal offices of United States Senators and Congressmen.
Issue No. 2 also does not affect the term limits of the offices of governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state, state land commissioner, auditor of state or state treasurer — just the members of the state House and state Senate in Arkansas' General Assembly.
More term limit considerations to chew on.
Next week: Referred Issue No. 3.
MAYLON RICE IS A FORMER JOURNALIST WHO WORKED FOR SEVERAL NORTHWEST ARKANSAS PUBLICATIONS. HE CAN BE REACHED VIA EMAIL AT [email protected]. OPINIONS EXPRESSED ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHOR.
Editor's Note: It was brought to our attention that the Opinion column by Maylon Rice which ran in our Aug. 19 issue contained an error.
Issue 2 proposes to reduce term limits for Arkansas legislators from 16 years of service to 12 years, and not to increase the limits from 12 to 16 years as the column mistakenly states.
The issue, if adopted by voters would allow state legislators who had served for 12 consecutive years in the Arkansas House and Senate to be re-elected to the state Legislature after sitting out for four years (two terms in the House or one in the Senate). Currently, after 16 years of service in the House and Senate, the legislator may not again serve in the state Legislature. The proposed amendment, while reducing the length of service, allows a reset of that time limit after being ineligible to serve for four years.
The measure also states that the change in the length of time one may serve in the Legislature from 16 to 12 years applies only to legislators first elected on or after Jan. 1, 2021. The "come back" clause would allow any legislator (including those first elected before Jan. 1, 2021, and under the 16-year limit) to be re-elected to the House or Senate after four years of ineligibility. Those re-elected after four years of ineligibility would then be subject to the 12-year limit.
The above column was corrected for accuracy.