A top leader in the House of Representatives wants to give independent and third-party voters a reason to go to the polls on primary election days, change the way the redistricting process is done, and put term limits on House committee chairmanships.

House Majority Leader Dave Reed, R-Indiana County, began on Wednesday circulating a memo among his legislative colleagues seeking support for those three government reforms.

Reed, who is not seeking re-election, indicated that he sees these changes as part of an ongoing long-term effort to restore faith in government. A Franklin & Marshall College Poll conducted in March identified government and politicians as the most important problem that voters see facing the state.

In the memo, Reed noted that the House has passed a package of bills to bring transparency and spending limits to the state budget process, create an independent Office of Inspector General, increase penalties in the law regulating lobbyists, and reducing the size of the Legislature.

"There is still more which needs to be done," the memo states.

Reed told Capitol reporters on Tuesday he wants to throw his ideas on the table to try to spur a broader long-term discussion about them within the Legislature as well as outside the Capitol.

After all, he said, "True change begins with citizens electing folks committed to change."

Reed is proposing to remove the exclusion of independent or non-affiliated voters from the primary by allowing those voters to choose whether they want to cast votes in the Republican or Democratic primary.

With nearly 750,000 voters registered as independents or non-affiliated, he said giving these voters a voice in the primary could have a big impact, particularly in local elections which oftentimes draw only candidates from one party and a race gets decided in the primary.

As for redistricting reform, he proposes an alternative to the notion of establishing an independent commission populated by people picked by politicians to draw electoral boundaries of legislative and congressional districts every 10 years. Reed wants to throw open eligibility for commission membership to all registered voters.

He is proposing selecting commission members in the same random way juries are selected with the members seated in a way to preserve party and geographic balance.

While those chosen could defer their selection, Reed said, "If you start with the entire set of eligible folks that meet the requirement, you have less of a chance of people gaming that system and more of a chance a truly independent commission."

A third reform he is proposing would limit House members' service as a committee chairman of a particular committee to three two-year terms, a model similar to one used by Congress. Currently in the state House, chairmanship selections are based on seniority with no term limits.

"It provides an opportunity for new ideas to get into that process, new perspectives," Reed said. "I think the time has come for maybe consideration of that in Pennsylvania as well."

Once introduced, Reed's legislation likely would be referred to the House State Government Committee, where it has been some reform proposals, particularly those offered by Democrats, go to die.

The committee's Chairman Daryl Metcalfe, R-Butler County, publicly stated on Facebook that he would "block all substantive Democrat legislation sent to my committee and advance good Republican legislation!"

Metcalfe demonstrated that by twice leading the Republicans' effort to alter Democratic redistricting reform proposals that called for creating an 11-member independent citizens commission to instead create a six-member commission of legislative appointees.

Metcalfe did not return a call on Wednesday afternoon seeking comment about Reed's proposals and their prospects of receiving consideration by his committee.

Rep. Matt Bradford of Montgomery County, the ranking Democrat on the state government committee, said, "In light of some of the clearly partisan attempts to undermine the prior redistricting reform proposals seen out of the Republican majority in the House State Government Committee, I'm glad to see Leader Reed as he is leaving the Legislature realize that certain reforms need to be looked at and potentially implemented to bring a level of openness to the system."