By Nick Tomboulides
According to new data from George Mason University, states with term limits on their legislatures are more likely to have a top level fiscal condition than other states.
The school’s Mercatus Center report “Ranking the States by Fiscal Condition” shows that three of the five best performing states have term limits. So do six of the top 10, and eight of the top 15.
Researchers generated the report by looking at each state’s revenues, expenditures, assets, liabilities and debt. A higher ranking means a state is better able to pay its bills and honor long-term commitments.
This level of success is even more impressive when one remembers that only 30 percent of all states limit legislators’ terms, but 60 percent of elite fiscal states do.
Citizens are the big winners here, as they get to live under more capable leadership.
The big losers? Critics of term limits. For decades, the core of their argument has been a claim that term limits let incompetent rookies run states into the ground. By showing that term limits states are proportionally better off than their counterparts, this report turns that argument into rubble.
Nick Tomboulides is the Executive Director of U.S. Term Limits