AUGUSTA – A bill asking Maine voters this November whether they want to repeal term limits is “pretty much dead,” House Speaker Michael Saxl said.

With chances of passage slim at best, the Portland Democrat sees little sense in allowing the bill, LD 1340, to be debated when lawmakers return to attend to unfinished business and vetoes on April 24.

“I didn’t want a protracted debate in the House” only to have the bill rejected, Saxl said. “It’s pretty much dead.”

Lawmakers had considered two options: sending an advisory referendum on term limits to voters, or putting a binding referendum on the ballot that would actually repeal the law.

Supporters of repealing term limits say voters have changed their minds in the nine years since they approved the law. And the Legal and Veterans Affairs Committee voted 12-1 in favor of an advisory referendum.

The bill remained on the House agenda for weeks but Saxl never called it up for a vote because, he said, there was not enough support in the Senate to pass it.

Rep. John Tuttle, House chairman of the committee that endorsed the bill, was given time to try to persuade senators to send the proposal to referendum, “but he’s come to the realization that it doesn’t have a lot of strength,” Saxl said.

Tuttle, D-Sanford, sponsored the amendment to make the referendum binding.

Maine voters in 1993 authorized limits of four consecutive two-year House or Senate terms. The limits also apply to four other prominent state officials.

Rep. Lillian O’Brien, a Legal and Veterans Affairs Committee member who voted to send the repeal proposal to referendum, said she is not bothered seeing it shelved now because lawmakers have so many other compelling issues to deal with. Among them is a sensitive Workers’ Compensation matter on the April 24 agenda.

But the Lewiston Democrat said she still favors repealing term limits because she believes legislators do their jobs better as they gain more experience.

“I would hope to see it changed to a minimum of five terms or 10 years” if voters approve it, O’Brien said.