ALBANY---Members of the New York State Senate Majority Conference have announced they will be advancing legislation and a Constitutional Amendment that would impose term limits on statewide elected officials and limit the tenure of legislative leaders and committee chairs.

The proposals would place a limit of two terms on statewide elected officials, including the Governor, Comptroller and Attorney General, and limit the tenure of all legislative leaders to eight years, and the tenure of committee chairs to six years.

Under the proposed amendment to the State Constitution, a Governor could not be elected more than twice. The amendment, which is modeled after the 22nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, also provides that a person who serves as Governor for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected may not be elected more than once. The Attorney General and State Comptroller would also be limited to two elective terms for their respective offices.

The Constitutional Amendment would not apply to statewide officials currently in office.

Separate legislation will be advanced to make the statutory changes necessary to impose term limits on the Temporary President and Minority Leader of the Senate, and Speaker and Minority Leader of the Assembly, as well as on the chairs of the Legislature's Standing Committees.

Under this legislation, the Temporary President and Speaker will not be able to serve in these leadership posts beyond eight years. A separate provision in the bill will limit the tenure for chairmanship of any one committee to six years. 4-18-07

© 2007 North Country Gazette