Term Limits Start

The decision of the state Senate majority leader, Joseph Bruno, to come out in favor of term limits for legislative leaders in Albany means that two of the "big three" in New York's state government now back term limits. It was in a September 26, 2007, debate with the Republican candidate for governor, John Faso, that Attorney General Spitzer, now Governor Spitzer, came out in favor of term limits. While Mr. Faso may have lost the election, one of his signal victories may be that he maneuvered Mr. Spitzer into this position on this issue.

These columns have had an interest in term limits in Albany that dated back at least to October 3, 2005, when the lead front-page news article in The New York Sun ran under the headline "Surprise Boost of Term Limits in New Poll." The article, by Julia Levy, reported on a poll financed by New Yorkers for Term Limits that found 77% of New Yorkers favored "placing term limits on members of the State Legislature and the governor so they cannot serve any longer than eight consecutive years in the same office."

The term limits Mr. Bruno supports would apply to the governor and committee chairmen and leaders in the Legislature but not to individual lawmakers. We'd prefer to go further and extend the limits to individual lawmakers, but the consensus represented by Messrs. Bruno and Spitzer, a Republican and a Democrat, is a start. The Associated Press reports from Albany that the Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, a Democrat, has responded by saying, in effect, that if the Republicans in the Senate are so wildly enthusiastic about term limits, why don't they impose them on themselves?

It was classic Silver, who is, to judge by the record to date, the shrewdest operator in Albany by a mile. But on the substance, we're with Messrs. Spitzer and Bruno on this one. We don't think term limits are a panacea. But they are a pathway to reform, and an agreement by the governor and the majority leader ought to be enough to start some movement to get term limits passed. If a statewide ballot initiative is required, the sooner the better.