Onondaga County residents voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to put 12-year term limits on the county executive and county comptroller.
The measure won 86% of the vote with 100% of the vote counted. A second measure, which proposed 16-year term limits on the two positions, won 52% of its vote, with around 15,000 fewer voters choosing to mark “yes” or “no” in that referendum.
Because of a decision by a judge earlier in this year, only the referendum with more votes will become law, despite both referendums technically passing.
Terms in office already served will not count against the two positions’ limits, nor will the shortened three-year term from 2027-2030 as the county switches to even-year elections for the executive and comptroller. The soonest that someone could be term-limited out of those two positions is 2042.
The vote is a decisive coda in a months-long fight to put term limits on the ballot. Democrats in the county legislature first proposed a referendum on 12-year limits on the county executive in May, passing the measure in June. County Executive Ryan McMahon vetoed the proposal, calling it partisan, as it did not apply to the comptroller, a Democrat.
The next month, Democrats again proposed a referendum on 12-year term limits, this time including the county comptroller. Republicans proposed a similar referendum on 16-year limits, which they said they had designed with the county executive. The 12-year limits passed and the 16-year limits failed.
McMahon vowed to veto the referendum, saying that while he was against term limits generally, he would have signed the proposed 16-year referendum as it had more bipartisan support. (Two Democrats joined Republicans in supporting that measure.) Instead, he accidentally signed the local law, launching a legal scuffle over whether the referendum should end up on the ballot.
Eventually, a judge decided to compromise by putting both the 12- and 16-year limits on the ballot. If both referendums failed, there would be no term limits. If both passed, the one with more votes in favor would win.
Ultimately, 12-year term limits won.
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