AUGUSTA – Maine voters likely will get to decide in November whether to let their legislators serve longer terms in office.

Gov. John Baldacci is expected to sign a bill that, if approved by voters, would extend Maine’s present four-term limit to six terms – or from eight consecutive years to 12 in either the House or Senate. Term limits were imposed through a referendum in 1993.

Lawmakers gave final approval to the bill before they adjourned this year’s session Thursday night. Word that Baldacci will sign the bill came from the governor’s office.

Sen. Lisa Marrache, who co-chairs the Legal and Veterans Affairs Committee, which reviewed the bill, said she supports it because “more and more we are finding that term limits is an experiment that has had a weakening effect on our representative democracy.”

Marrache, D-Waterville, said expanding the time that lawmakers can serve could restore a proper balance among the branches of government.

“Since term limits have been enacted, many observers to the legislative process have said that the institutional knowledge of the Legislature has deteriorated, and that lobbyists and executive branch officials have increased their power over committee chairs and legislative leadership,” said Marrache.

An earlier version of the proposal sought to repeal term limits altogether as long as voters approve. The amended version, while extending the allowable number of consecutive terms to six, would not apply to lawmakers now in their fourth terms.

The 1993 initiative campaign calling for legislative term limits targeted career politicians who benefit from their incumbency when they are challenged in elections. The campaign was fueled by voter anger after partisan gridlock that shut down state government in 1991, and term limits were approved 2-to-1.

The proposal was bankrolled almost entirely by Republican philanthropist Elizabeth Noyce, and opposed by union leaders and the state Democratic Party.

The law’s constitutionality was challenged in federal court by a group of long-term incumbents, but a judge in 1997 upheld the law. It also limits the terms of other prominent state officials: the secretary of state, treasurer, attorney general and auditor.

The year after legislative term limits were authorized, Maine voters approved a congressional term limits law, which sought to limit members of the U.S. House to six years in office during a 12-year period and members of the U.S. Senate to 12 years in an 18-year period.

The U.S. Supreme Court later ruled that state-enacted term limits on members of Congress were unconstitutional.