In California, initiatives are passed to fix the last set of initiatives, and legislators squirm through a forest of overlapping mandates. Legislators lack much flexibility, even when they've learned something useful and important about the state budget. And that's assuming they have learned much. Under term limits approved by voters in 1992, the House now has nobody who has served more than three terms except Kevin Man nix, R-Salem, who served four terms before term limits and has returned to a new shot clock. The Senate still has a few veterans, but their meters will run out soon.
People say they can tell.
Roger Martin, a former Republican House leader who is now a lobbyist, talks about the difficulties of testifying before the new breed. Sen. Tom Hartung, R-Cedar Mill, is on his third tour of the Legislature, having served from 1967 to 1974 and from 1979 to 1982 before returning in 1994. He recalls his first session, which had as many House freshmen 25 as any term-limited Legislature, but also had veterans, and a major effort to train and explain. Lack of experience and understanding is just part of the effect of term limits. Legislators who know they have only a brief time to make a mark or a career can be less willing to be flexible or listen to details they hadn't known before.