Part Time / No Term Limits?
One of the efforts underway for the fall ballot is headed by the President and CEO of the Kalamazoo Chamber of Commerce, who is making it his mission to eliminate term limits, chop legislative salaries and make Michigan the 40th state with a part-time Legislature.
The man in charge, Steward Sandstrom, is confident that his efforts will be rewarded this fall. So far he’s collected more than 1,400 volunteers, has distributed a minimum of 8,000 petitions and convinced the Saginaw and Clarkston Chambers to join his group.
“We’re working with other chambers, the Kalamazoo Homebuilders were the first to come on board, and we’re working with other locals and state groups,” he said.
If Sandstrom is successful in his pursuit of a vastly reformed legislative schedule, the Legislature would have about six more weeks this year to get its work done. The Sandstrom effort would set a session day cap of 100 and require the Legislature to be gone by May 31 of each year.
“I would anticipate they are going to have committee meetings and hearings other times of the year,” Sandstrom says.
The Legislature currently has an average of 97 session days. Sandstrom said the 100-day cap gives them plenty of time to “discuss the important issues of the day.” The Kalamazoo Chamber’s reforms go well beyond session days. They also tie lawmakers’ salaries to 80 percent of the state’s median household income, which is $39,000, a vast dip from the $79,000 they make today. Anyone who doesn’t show up for session would have their pay docked. As for term limits, well, they’d be eliminated completely.
Sandstrom said he’s hopeful that once the proposal is on the ballot, the issue itself will entice people to vote in the affirmative. However, he still wants to get numbers that support his assumption that most people would be in favor of such a proposal. His proposal is just one of two efforts to change the way the Legislature operates. The other effort being pushed by a Saginaw-based father-son combo does not repeal term limits. Sandstrom’s had conversations with Greg and Al Schmid but was unable to get them to merge efforts.
“They really like (term limits) the way they are. We don’t think that that’s the best way to govern the state,” he said. “In fact, if the part-time Legislature goes through without a change in term limits we think that’s catastrophic.”