Measure 1 rural impacts

BISMARCK, N.D. (KFYR) -In five days, North Dakotans will soon cast ballots to decide who represents them, and this year they’ll decide for how long candidates can remain on the ballot.

Measure 1 would create term limits for people serving in the legislature, it would cap a lawmaker to eight years in the House and Senate and limit the governor to two terms. I chose to look at three different areas of North Dakota this would impact, our rural communities, agriculture, and education.

Those looking to impose term limits on legislators say the measure would increase citizen involvement in politics, putting more people into the rotation in the legislature. The National Field Director for term limits says the root of the problem is only a few people acquire power by being reelected over and over again.

“In a legislature, power is almost always based on seniority and a few people will hold that power and then new people get elected, and even if the populace wants change and wants new things a few people can stop that from happening and can maintain the status quo,” said Scott Tillman, National Field Director

But those in opposition say replacing people too often will change our current part-time legislature to full-time, which would need to meet more often to accomplish what needs to be done.

“So, if we kick people out then we naturally lean ourselves toward we’ll we have to meet every year because we can get everything done or we can’t gain the experience, " said Pete Hanebutt with the North Dakota Farm Bureau.

In rural areas, which make up a lot of North Dakota, it can be difficult to find people willing to serve. Charles Tuttle who brought the measure to North Dakota says we should be teaching our young people to want to serve.

“If we are teaching our children a high degree of intelligence, patriotism, integrity, and morality which is what our constitution says, we will have plenty of statesmen coming through the ranks,” said Tuttle.

Farmers, ranchers, and small business owners make up a lot of rural jobs and they say it’s difficult to find people able to volunteer to serve in the legislature for 80 days which forces them to be away from a farm, ranch, or business, “It already limits us as to who can represent us there and if have somebody willing to serve and is doing a good job, I think they deserve to stay there as long as they are willing to and if we feel they aren’t doing a good job we can vote them out,” said Erika Kenner who farms and ranches in Leeds and also serves on the North Dakota Stockman’s Association Board. Then comes the issue of education, along with the experience necessary for people to learn the ins and outs of complicated issues and budgets. Tuttle contends that if lawmakers take so long to understand the process, maybe they aren’t a good fit. “If we don’t have people who have the intelligence to handle the job, they probably shouldn’t be there,” said Tuttle. Aimee Kopas with the North Dakota Council of Educational Leaders says things like budgets are simply too complicated to learn in one session and even the slightest change to the formulas they use can spell catastrophe for rural schools. “If that funding formula falls apart then we start to see where our local rural districts cannot perform the level of a Bismarck, or a Minot or a Fargo and that’s just not fair to those kids,” said Kopas. Another provision in Measure 1 would require that if measure one is passed it will override any other constitutional provisions in conflict with it. Election Day is November 8th, to read more on this measure go to vote.nd.gov.