It Is Not a Term Limit Law
By Steve Levy
A few years ago, Suffolk County legislators put up to a referendum a proposal that would extend their terms from two to four years. The Suffolk County voters overwhelmingly rejected it, wishing to keep the legislators more accountable to the voters.
But now the legislators are back at it again, trying to backdoor the four-year term by claiming it’s needed to deal with a new state law that requires local elections to be conducted on even-numbered, rather than odd-numbered, years
We opposed the power grab by state Democrats, who sought this shift to the even years simply because Democratic turnout is heavier in those years.
They couldn’t give a flip, however, that the public’s attention to these important local races will now be diminished by the fact that the locals will be running in the same year as presidents and governors. Fewer voters will be paying attention to these very important local races.
We wish that the bill hadn’t passed or that the courts would’ve struck it down, but it is now the law. Local legislators say they don’t want to have to run in 2025 and then again in 2026 and 2008.
We totally understand their frustration, but the answer is NOT to do away with the tried and true concept of having legislators on the local state and federal levels elected every two years. These short terms are important to keep them accountable to the public if the people sour on their governing.
Proponents of this referendum for the four-year term are disingenuously misleading the public into believing it is a term limit law. There are already term limits on the books, and this law will have no effect as to whether the county continues to have a term limit law.
Basically, this is a redo of the four-year term proposal that was resoundingly defeated by the voters a few years ago.
Voters should defeat the proposal once again.