State action on term-limit legislation for Reno County Commissioners will not happen this year. The legislation known as House Bill 2300 was introduced Tuesday, but it won’t make it out of committee and onto the floor for any action.

Republican State Representative, Steve Becker of Buhler, sent Reno County Officials notice by e-mail Thursday morning that the measure is dead for the year. He says the chairman of the House Committee on Local Government told him that due to time constraints on the proposed bill regarding term limits, it will not be given a hearing this session. This is the second time such a measure has failed to gather any momentum at the state level.

The lack of action is major blow to Commission Chairman Dan Deming who pushed for term limits. But, it was a divided commission chamber with Commissioner James Schlickau voicing strong opposition to the proposal. Commissioner Brad Dillon sided with Deming, but stated he fully understood Schlickau’s position.

The issue created a divide in the commission which at times got testy, especially after Schlickau stated during a regular meeting that Deming actually voted against term limits while a member of the city council. Deming during that meeting had denied the accusation several times until Schlickau produced a copy of the minutes from a council meeting that showed Deming had voted against term limits. Deming stated in the meeting that he didn’t recall casting any such vote.

The bill in the legislature would have allowed the County Commission to put a ballot question before voters which would have asked them if they were in favor of term limits for the commission. If approved, that would limited them to only two four-year terms.