If only other county councils in Maryland would follow the lead of Carroll County. Commissioners there asked their state delegation to pass legislation limiting the number of terms they can spend in office to two consecutive four-year terms.
 

Most elected officials stay in office for decades if allowed to by voters -- with little to show for it except bigger government now bankrupting municipalities and states around the nation.
 

Short tenure deprives elected officials of the incentive to pass legislation to help them get re-elected at the expense of the public treasury. It also gives them the freedom to make hard decisions without fear of retribution. They do not prevent corruption, as recent events in Prince George's County show, but they prevent crooks from staying long. According to the Maryland Association of Counties website, only four counties, including Prince George's, impose term limits on either council members or the county executive.
 

Haven Shoemaker, a newly elected Republican commissioner in Carroll County, said "the logic behind term limits is that you have to pry public officials from the public trough with a crowbar." He knows. He unseated a five-term incumbent to win a seat by promising in his campaign not to stay long.
 

He said he wishes all elected positions in the state and at the federal level had term limits because "unfortunately, we have legislators who are always looking to the next election."
 

That is the reason legislators so frequently hand out goodies to those who vote for them that then come back to haunt the state later. A classic example is the 2006 decision to increase retirement benefits for teachers in Maryland. Because of underfunding, overpromising and poor market performance, the state faces more than a $30 billion combined shortfall for pensions and health care for state retirees.
 

My hometown of Baltimore is battling a federal lawsuit with fire and police unions over retirement benefits the city will not be able to pay without slashing the budget for fire, police and other city services in coming years. Last year the city faced a $120 million budget deficit and has been losing population and jobs for 50 years. Some city council members have been around for more than 20 years, one more than 30, proving that experience does not produce wisdom in many instances.
 

Voters around the country of all political backgrounds routinely approve term limits measures when allowed to vote on them. They are not partisan, just good public policy. Elected officials were never supposed to make a career of public office. They were supposed to serve for a short time and then return to their homes and professions.
 

When politics becomes a career as it has for so many elected officials in Maryland and around the country, the needs of government overshadow the needs of constituents. Many people complain that members of the state legislature have never run their own business or made a payroll. If term limits existed, every elected official would have to make a living outside of government, forcing them to learn how to make money instead of just spending other people's. With the state facing a $1.6 billion deficit, the legislature could use a few more people with a different perspective.