Senator John Alario was honored last week for his 48 years
of service in the Louisiana legislature. On the one hand his
accomplishments are many, but on the other hand he epitomizes why Louisiana
continually ranks last or near last in so many national polls. Can you
imagine how many times someone with that many years in our legislature has had
to make deals with lobbyists and special interest groups such as LABI (Louisiana Association of Business and Industry) in order
to insure he maintains the financial backing necessary to keep getting re-elected?
Presently there is no such thing as strict, terminal term
limits in our state legislature, only pseudo term limits. One is
simply limited to two consecutive 4 year terms of service in a particular
house, but can immediately run for election to the opposite house.
This can result in the same individuals perpetually jumping back and forth
between the House of Representatives and the Senate. Hence we have individuals like our state legislator,
with 48 years of service, who can not run for Senate re-election due to our present term limit law, but is considering running for a seat in the state
House of Representatives.
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Some will argue that this flip flop system is good because
it insures that we will always have experienced individuals in charge of
passing legislation that will be beneficial to their constituents. Sadly, in reality it is the well- financed special interest
groups and lobbyist that are the primary beneficiaries of such a system and not
necessarily the Louisiana voters who they are supposed to represent. Any
bill or legislation presented and voted upon by legislators under our present
system of pseudo term limits is always framed in terms of how it
best serves those with the financial backing that the legislators need for their
re-election.
While our present esteem legislators will deny such
accusations, we only need to look at their voting records surrounding the
nursing home industry, gas, petroleum and chemical industry, and casino
industry to see who has the most influence over our legislators in this
state. In fact, regarding the nursing home industry, many of our
legislators have blatant conflicts of interest for they either own or are
heavily invested in such entities.
We also have ourselves to blame for the perpetual recycling
of the same legislators because many times voters keep re-electing these
individuals simply because of name recognition. Additionally, some don’t
even have to participate in the voting process at all, for they run unopposed
due to financial limitations on the part of potential opponents. An elimination of both of these shortcomings could be a beneficial side effect if
true term limits were implemented in our state. The Governor of this state
can’t serve for more than two consecutive 4 year terms so why should we permit
legislators to serve due to a term limit loophole?
The term limit law for our legislators needs to be
revised and clearly defined as two consecutive terms in either house of
government and then you’re done for at least two years. You could
serve two consecutive terms (8 years total) in the House of Representatives or
two terms in the Senate and you could not run for the other after your term
expires. Simply put, you would be out of the state
legislature for a minimum of two years and you would need to find another job!
