While many citizens of Maine may be disappointed in the performance of their Legislature, few realize the extent to which term limits are to blame. The people of Maine should be aware of the unintended consequences of term limits. The editorial page of this paper lost a good opportunity to educate the public on this issue when, in the Oct. 4 edition, it conceded that loss of experience in the Legislature under term limits is a legitimate concern but said, in effect, that because there is no public awareness of this serious issue, we should maintain the status quo.

Extending term limits for state legislative offices from four to six terms is a moderate reform that will address some serious adverse effects of term limits. Maine needs this reform because:

•Term limits make the Legislature less effective.

•They weaken the Legislature’s role in crafting sound policy solutions to complex problems.

•Under term limits, the Legislature is less representative of the people of Maine.

At a time when the state of Maine faces many serious issues in the areas of education, health care, tax policy and economic development, we need the best, most effective Legislature that the citizens of Maine can elect. Term limits have crippled our ability to field the strongest team.

It’s not just Maine. According to studies done by the National Council of State Legislatures, other states that have implemented term limits have suffered similar consequences.

By disqualifying legislators who have been able to gain skill through experience, term limits dilute the effective performance of the Legislature and weaken the Legislature’s role in crafting sound policy solutions to complex problems.

Because term-limited legislators want to act quickly on their priority issues, they are more likely to focus on short-term topics, rather than complex, long-term problems. The state of Maine faces many important and complex issues in public policy, and we need the best, most capable Legislature that we can elect to do the job.

The most representative body of state government — the House of Representatives — has been the most seriously disempowered by term limits. Because many senators previously served in the House, they are more experienced, and power has migrated to the Senate. Before term limits went into effect, the average legislative tenures in the House and Senate were relatively equal — about seven years in each body. At the start of the 123rd Legislature, the average legislative tenure in the Senate was over eight years; in the House, it was under three years. Term limits have effectively destabilized the bicameral relationship between the House and the Senate.

While term limits have diluted the performance of the Legislature, they have also increased the workload, choking legislative committees with bills that recycle old ideas that have failed in the past or that lack insight about good policy or political support.

By decreasing the power of the Legislature, term limits have upset the balance of power between the legislative and executive branches. Policy expertise that once was held by legislative committees has been ceded to executive branch department heads and partisan professional staff.

This paper argued in its Oct. 4 editorial that, because term limits were enacted by citizen initiative, they should not now be tampered with — even by legislative referendum. But lawmaking is dynamic, even when it is citizen-initiated:  voters would be unhappy if the Legislature were to shirk its responsibility to revisit and improve existing laws as the test of time may demand. Similarly, the voters themselves have not only the right, but also the responsibility to consider and amend laws passed in referendum when, over time, they discover improvements are needed.

Meanwhile, the issue that precipitated the term limits referendum in 1993 regarding the entrenched leadership of former House Speaker John Martin, who had served as speaker for over 20 years, has been addressed more appropriately and proportionately by Maine law that prohibits anyone from serving as speaker of the House or president of the Senate for more than three consecutive terms. This law remains in force.

When term limits passed in 1993, legislative turnover was already quite high in Maine. Now, with over 10 years of experience under term limits, we see that the unintended consequences demand serious attention and remedy. The time has come to reflect on what has worked and what hasn’t.

Extending the maximum number of terms from four to six is a sensible reform that respects the original initiative while helping give the citizens of Maine the good government they deserve.

Ann Luther is co-president of the League of Women Voters of Maine. She lives in Trenton.