Barely a week ago, California voters approved changes to the state’s term limits law. California will now allow state lawmakers to serve up to a dozen years in one chamber before they are forced out of office. A Republican legislator in Michigan hopes this state will follow California’s example.
California’s old term limits law was similar to the one in Michigan that allows lawmakers no more than six years in the House and eight years in the Senate.
Republican state Senator John Pappageorge says Michigan has suffered because state lawmakers are inexperienced and never learn to work together.Pappageorge says the idea of tweaking term limits is popular with Michigan voters. But he says politicians are reluctant to change them.
“The bean counters on the Democrat side say, ‘This will help the Republicans,’" Pappageorge says. "The bean counters on the Republican side say, ‘This will help the Democrats.’ That’s what I’ve been trying to overcome.”
Pappageorge says he still hopes to amend term limits in Michigan before he is termed out of office in 2014.