What this was supposed to do was take much of the politics out of governing. Voters had an image of corrupt machine politicians staying in office forever, feathering their nests, preventing reform.

So they ended that. Unfortunately, what they got instead was worse. In many aspects, much worse — as a new study conclusively shows.

Today, Michigan has a legislature full of politicians who haven’t had time to learn their jobs. There are no old-timers to take them under their wings and mentor them. Today’s lawmakers haven’t had time to build up good working relationships with fellow legislators in their own party caucus — let alone on the other side.

They have to scramble to keep jobs that are temporary at best, and for their last two years, their minds are frequently not on this job, but on finding their next job. Term-limited House members run for the Senate; senators run for the House; others seek positions with the special interests who seek to influence them.
Lawmakers sometimes quit in the middle of the term to take a secure job, often leaving their constituents unrepresented for months. (State Rep. Tim Moore, (R-Farwell) is apparently about to resign to become an elementary school principal, for example.)

The effects of this are stunningly visible to anyone who has followed or covered the legislature for very long. But now, there is solid, scientific new evidence of what a disaster term limits have been. Marjorie Sarbaugh-Thompson, a professor of political science at Wayne State University, has led a team of researchers who have been monitoring term limits since they took effect in 1998. In an article in Legislative Studies Quarterly, they present clear and dramatic proof that lawmakers spend far less time monitoring state agencies than was the case before.

Shockingly, “this research shows that many legislators elected after term limits don’t even realize this is part of their job.” Many said things like this is “not our job. It’s the governor’s job.” Even if lawmakers do take their oversight responsibilities seriously, they are apt to be less effective. Why? In the old days, lawmakers had years to build up relationships and trust with members of the permanent civil service.

Under newly proposed House legislation by the East Lansing Democrat, the state constitution would be changed to double a single House term from two years to four years, and expand a Senate term from four years to six years.

Meadows is not the first lawmaker to propose tinkering with House and Senate terms in the wake of term limits passed in 1993, but his proposal is unique.

"Term limits have been an experiment that always haven't produced very good public policy," State Representative Gretchen Whitmer said. "There's less experience. There's greater reliance on (lobbyists) for information and finances."

what is do1thing?

Do1thing is a 12-month program that makes it easy for you to prepare yourself, your family, and your community for emergencies and disasters. The do1thing program breaks the job of emergency preparedness into 12 smaller monthly pieces:

Each month, the program focuses on one area of emergency preparedness and provides a variety of actions that you can take to become better prepared.

If you do1thing each month, by the time a year has passed, you will have taken big steps towards preparing yourself, your family, and your community for emergencies and disasters.

Dave Bing says he has data indicating up to 80,000 of the 350,000 buildings in Detroit are vacant or ramshackle. He wants to rid the city of those structures and transplant any residents who live in those neighborhoods considered beyond repair.

"If we don't do it, you know this whole city is going to go down," Bing told me this week. "If they stay where they are, I absolutely cannot give them all the services they require.

Bing acknowledged the difficulty ahead in choosing "winners and losers" among Detroit's neighborhoods and he knows court challenges will be forthcoming. But he's beginning to garner support. Funding and other assistance is being pledged by the Kresge and Skillman foundations. Even a one-time opponent of such citizen dislocation is supporting the mayor.

But the two former politicians from different parties played nice and spoke about the challenges facing the state with the nation's highest unemployment rate.

"Sooner or later, the great state of Michigan will rise again," Blanchard said. "The only question is when and how and what we can do about it."

But there was plenty of common ground. Engler and Blanchard agreed that term limits need to end, that a new publicly owned bridge connecting Windsor and Detroit needs to be built soon and that reaching across the aisle to get work done is a noble endeavor.