Say No Again

A bad idea doesn’t improve with age. Suffolk County is about to discover this.

In November, the county will ask its voters, once again, to sign off on four-year terms for county legislators. That’s double the current two-year term, and it comes on the heels of a 2023 state law that will switch local elections to even-number years — when federal and state positions are on the ballot, too.

There’s almost nothing new about the proposed switch to four-year terms when comparing it to 2020, when seven out of 10 Suffolk County voters rejected the idea. Columnist Karl Grossman offers a nice breakdown of the evolving politics involved on the facing page, but it hardly matters: There is no reason to think the county’s voters have any interest in the idea, which gives voters less than half the say they have today when picking legislators and, more importantly, making a change quickly if they find they’ve made a mistake, watching that person in office for two years.

The legislature’s argument, that a four-year term will mean less campaigning and fundraising, is a red herring. The county races are not big-ticket posts, and they are not nearly the distraction they’re described as being for candidates. The legislature suggested it cuts into “community involvement,” when the honest truth is that campaigning is often as involved in the community as some legislators get.

Voters have heard it all, and they were not swayed in 2020. Don’t be swayed this time, either. Four-year terms are a great deal for the elected officials, and offer absolutely no benefit for the electorate.