Term limits may get the boot

Three-fourths of Utahns want to keep the current 12-year legislative term-limit law, a new Deseret News/KSL-TV poll shows.

But legislators may just repeal term limits this Legislature anyway.

Monday, Sen. Curt Bramble, R-Provo, introduced a term-limits bill. While only in title form now, Bramble says he prefers an outright repeal of the current law. However, he said he may be persuaded to change his bill to only call for a referendum on the current law.

Introduction in the Senate is a key difference to this year's attempt to get rid of term limits. Twice before the House has passed a term-limit repeal, only to see it fail in the Senate. Now, enough repeal votes may be in the Senate.

A Dan Jones & Associates poll conducted in early January for the newspaper and TV station found that 76 percent of Utahns "strongly" or "somewhat" favor keeping the current law.

Only 18 percent of Utahns oppose the current term-limit law, Jones found. Six percent didn't know. Over the years, Jones has found term limits always popular in Utah.

Bramble himself won't feel the pinch of term limits for another 10 years. So why then is the first-term lawmaker set on eliminating term limits altogether?

"I look around the Senate and see 20 of 29 senators with four years or less tenure," Bramble said, "and I realize we are going to lose a great deal of institutional memory if we lose people like (Democratic senators) Mike Dmitrich and Ed Mayne."

Dmitrich has been in the Legislature since 1968. Ironically, he wouldn't be forced from the Senate in 2006 when term limits kick in. That's because he spent most of his time in the House; he could be elected to one more four-year term to the Senate in 2004 under the current term-limit law.

In fact, while many senators are relatively new to that body, 14 of the 29 senators used to be in the House, and with their combined House and Senate tenure many of them have been on Capitol Hill more than a decade.

"There needs to be a balance between new senators and those who have institutional memory when we are dealing with long-term issues," Bramble added.

"I would hope they wouldn't do this," said Bart Grant, head of Utah Term Limits, the group that in 1994 pushed a citizens initiative petition on to the ballot. "They should be patient. At least let's wait until (term limits) go into effect in 2006 and we see what happens."