Jack Hoogendyk writes on the part time legislature debate and two plans on it’s implementation. I am open to the idea of a part time legislature, and there are states which have successfully implemented them. However, does the existence of term limits help or hurt the argument for “part time?” Hoogendyk lists two current plans and where you can get more information on them.
Something could be said for institutional memory. In a prior article I mentioned I prefer term limits, and would still support them. I am not convinced however, that a part time legislature, coupled with term limits would be entirely efficient. Would the members be able to “warm up” to a point where they are procedurally effective when coming back from breaks for important legislation? As Hoogendyk pointed out in an earlier report, the house leadership may have “broke the law” and ignored Michigan’s constitution. Was it “on purpose,” or because they were ignorant?
A person in such a leadership position as Dillon (in this case) should be intimately familiar with our constitution of our great state. Giving him the benefit of the doubt, maybe he just didn’t have time to look. I would watch for a new part time legislature plan to surface which would keep term limits for when Republicans control the legislature, and eliminate term limits for Democrats because they are slow learners.