Will Rules Committee finally vote on Blaise Ingoglia’s local term limit bill?

The third time will have to be the charm for legislation in the Senate that would impose limits on county commissioners’ tenures.

But legislators in the Senate Rules committee will have to digest a delete-all amendment that significantly changes Sen. Blaise Ingoglia’s SB 438 after the bill was temporarily postponed twice in the same committee this month.

“Each noncharter county; each charter county whose charter does not impose term limits on county commissioners as of July 1, 2024; and each charter county whose charter, as of July 1, 2024, imposes term limits longer than 8 consecutive years on county commissioners shall hold a referendum election on November 5, 2024,” the suggested new language reads.

Voters in noncharter counties would be asked if county commissioners should be prohibited from serving longer than 8 consecutive years.

In charter counties with term limits longer than eight years, voters will be asked if they want to reduce the term limit for county commissioners to 8 consecutive years.

The language has a cooling off period that would allow commissioners to serve again after they’d been out of office for two years. It also grandfathers-in those currently elected to county commissions.

The House version of this legislation (HB 57) is already on the 2nd Reading Calendar, but the continued changes on the Senate side point to difficulties in reconciling the two products should they both make it to the floor.