Ohio-statehouse.JPG

A Ohio Constitutional Modernization Commission is expected to recommend this summer extending Statehouse term limits from eight years to 12 years. The measure would have to pass the General Assembly to make it onto the ballot, likely next year, and voters would get the final word.

(Robert Higgs, Northeast Ohio Media Group, File)

The Ohio Constitution, as voters amended it in 1992, limits the terms of Ohio General Assembly members. The wording is complicated. But in practical terms, a state senator or state representative may only serve eight consecutive years in his or her chamber before term limits kick in. He or she must then stand down for at least four years - or land a seat in the other chamber.

Sometime this summer, the Ohio Constitutional Modernization Commission is likely to recommend that General Assembly term limits be lengthened by four years - to 12 years. Such a constitutional amendment would require, first, the General Assembly's approval, then voters' approval. The issue would likely appear on the statewide ballot no sooner than November 2016.

About our editorials

Editorials express the view of the

of The Plain Dealer and Northeast Ohio Media Group -- the senior leadership and editorial-writing staff. As is traditional, editorials are unsigned and intended to be seen as the voice of the newspaper.

* Talk about the topic of this editorial in the comments below.

* Send a letter to the editor, which will be considered for print publication.

* Email general questions or comments about the editorial board to Elizabeth Sullivan, opinion director for the Northeast Ohio Media Group.

Still at issue is whether the amendment should apply to legislators serving in the General Assembly when (and if) voters passed it, or only to legislators first elected after the amendment took effect. That is, should someone elected when the eight-year limit applied be able to ask voters for four more years in the Ohio House or state Senate, as the case may be?

The answer is yes - incumbents should be allowed to do so. If Ohio must have term limits at all (the legislature is afraid to ask for outright repeal), then incumbent legislators should have the opportunity to continue serving if their constituents wish. After all, the central problem of term limits is that what they really limit is expertise about state government, expertise that defaults to the executive branch and Statehouse lobbyists.

Given the visibility of Congress as compared to the relative invisibility of the General Assembly, Ohio voters' ratification of the 1992 term-limits package was likely stoked by congressional antics. But 1992 was also the 18th year of Democrat Vernal G. Riffe's 20-year Ohio House speakership. Riffe's seeming impregnability undoubtedly spurred GOP partisans to collect the signatures they needed to place the term-limits amendment on the ballot.

Two great ironies: Riffe almost certainly aimed to retire in 1994 (and he did) - and courts ruled Ohio voters don't have the power to limit congressional terms. But voters do have the power to undo or at least mitigate Ohio's mistakes. Changing the eight-year General Assembly term limit to 12 years is a good way to begin.