Tie term limits to performance

There has been talk of term limits applied universally in Illinois. There is another solution that will change the Illinois government for good and only affect those who are not serving the citizens of Illinois.

Each elected office has a list of responsibilities already defined for that job. This list of responsibilities would be used to determine if the person in that office is doing the job. For the past few years the citizens of Illinois have been held hostage during the budget approval processes. Here is how the term limits would work related to those responsibilities.

If budget is late and you are the chairperson of the committee who is responsible for creating a budget, then your term limit has been reached for the chair of that committee.

If you are on the budget committee and have poor attendance at the committee meetings, then your term limit has been reached as a member of that committee. In general, if you had a responsibility that missed the deadline, then your term limit has been reached for that position or office.

Many of these responsibilities are already documented in the current laws and can be applied to both political parties equally. The incumbents' position on the ballot is secured by their job performance for the citizens of Illinois and not on what political party they belong to or the size of their campaign fund.

In my mind the citizens of Illinois paid some of our elected officials to do a poor job and this needs to stop. It is more than the money.

Companies who do business in the state of Illinois need to have confidence that the elected officials are going to do their job accurately and on time.

Jim Ray

Arlington Heights