Balls-to-the-wall S.C. State Rep. Nathan Ballentine has already been demoted by House Speaker Bobby Harrell for supporting common sense change over at the State House, so it makes sense that he’s saying “screw it” at this point and putting the pedal of truth and justice to the floor.
Ballentine, whose support of a transparency bill got him banished to a powerless House Committee, told FITS this week that he will be joining Sen. Ray Cleary in the fight to enact legislative term limits in South Carolina.
Specifically, Ballentine will file companion legislation in the House to go with Cleary’s term limit bill in the State Senate. Both bills would set a limit of 12 years (or six terms) for service in the House and a limit of sixteen years (or four terms) in the Senate – or 28 years max for any one lawmaker.
We did some quick calculations, and if this bill were the law of the land right now, then 43 out of 124 House Members and 24 of 46 Senators would be serving their last terms.
Of course, Cleary and Ballentine’s legislation would exempt current legislators, which we have to say is a damn shame.
Needless to say, Cleary and Ballentine’s proposal just got added to our list of “up or down votes” that lawmakers should take this session … and take on the record.
Note: Cool term limits cartoon courtesy of AnthonyGonzalez.com.
By James the Foot Soldier December 31, 2008 at 8:57 pm
Why on God’s green earth is the South Carolina legislature so large?
Add an amendement to reduce the size of the legislature in the house by 34 and the senate by 16 and we just might get this ship moving in the right direction.
By Lily January 1, 2009 at 4:28 am
This sounds great, and good for Nathan and Sen. Cleary. But it won’t do any good. The legislature will still have a monopoly on SC government, and all we will do with these bills is limit the time the new reformers have to serve. The bad guys won’t be going anywhere, and as we’ve seen from the current crop of leaders (especially in the Senate), they will be around longer than anyone who tries to get rid of them. I do hate to be cynical, but until you get rid of this antiquated system that gives unlimited power to the legislature, you are simply swatting at the mosquitoes. Get out the Raid — restructure government!
By Richard January 1, 2009 at 9:40 pm
These term limits sound great and I hope will pass. This provides just enough time for each elected official to do some good work yet not enough time to become totally tainted by the system.
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