Camden: Merry prefiling month to you

Three separate proposals want to get rid of “title-only” bills.

One of the most annoying — and sometimes most devious — strategies in legislating is to introduce bills early in the session that have no text, just a vague title like “regarding revenue” or “making appropriations.” Such fill-in-the blank bills can be used later as vehicles for last-minute legislation, even a full budget, by dropping in text that is pushed through with little time for hearings, or even reading.

The House has a prefiled bill to ban title-only bills and require any bill to wait at least three days after it is introduced or amended before a mandatory public hearing. The Senate has a bill and a proposed constitutional amendment to outright ban title-only bills. Admittedly, this discussion may make the average person fall into a catatonic stupor, but the proposals have good-government types nearly giddy that one of their least favorite maneuvers could be outlawed.

They’ll need more than a little help from Santa or some other magical being, however, because the party in control always uses title-only bills to break legislative logjams and get stuff done in the final days of a session.

Another wish that might be hard to fulfill would be a proposed constitutional amendment in the Senate for term limits for governors. It would limit a governor to no more than two four-year terms and to as few as five years plus one day should he or she be put in office to fill the unexpired term of a predecessor, then be elected to a full term.

The prime sponsor is Sen. Phil Fortunato, who is running for governor next year. It wouldn’t keep his potential opponent, Jay Inslee, from seeking a third term or even a fourth because he’d be grandfathered in should it get a supermajority in both chambers and voter approval next fall.

But it seems unlikely to get that far. Republicans, who have been shut out of the governor’s office since 1984, might be more likely to support a limit of one term, period, to give them more chances to run for an open seat. Democrats have no shortage of people with designs on the office down the road, so they might not be willing to close off their option for longer tenure.

Term limits have been popular with the public in the past. A 1992 initiative slapped them on the governor, lieutenant governor, legislators and members of Congress from Washington. The state Supreme Court said no to state offices, and the U.S. Supreme Court said no to federal offices. In both cases they need constitutional amendments, not just an initiative, the courts said.

The current proposal only would limit a governor’s stay in office, which is interesting from a historical perspective. Only two governors, Republicans Arthur Langlie and Dan Evans, have served three terms, and only Evans did it consecutively. Democrat Albert Rosellini tried but failed, first for a third consecutive term in 1964 and then with an unsuccessful comeback bid in 1972.

Since Evans, no two-term governor has wanted a third until Inslee.