Vallas: No term limits for local government — yet

Gov. Pat Quinn’s running mate is reluctant to see term limits spread to local government, at least for now.

Paul Vallas spoke Monday as a symposium kicked off on the politically popular subject of term limits at the Union League Club of Chicago, which hosted the symposium with the Better Government Association and the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University.

Quinn himself has long been an advocate of term limits. His Republican opponent, Bruce Rauner, is circulating petitions to place a referendum on the November ballot that would limit members of the General Assembly to eight years in office.

While supportive of term limits at the state level, Vallas said he’s reluctant to interfere with government at the local level. He thinks they should be applied to state lawmakers first.

“Local democracy’s the best democracy,” Vallas said.

The former Chicago Public Schools CEO also said the proposed term-limit referendum has a good chance of landing on the November ballot, and of being approved by voters.

That’s how he said he would place his bet — if he were a betting person.

“I’m not a betting person, unfortunately,” Vallas said.