County Legislature Chairman George Fearon successfully executed the resignation loophole last week. He stepped down from his legislator post on Dec. 31 so he could be eligible to collect retirement benefits from his other public sector job in the Union Springs Central School District, and then he got his county job back two days later when his Legislature colleagues re-appointed him. As a bonus, they also made him chairman for another year.

While we found Fearon's move, also taken in recent years by legislators Ann Petrus and Steven Netti for various reasons, to be deplorable, at least it served as a helpful reminder that the Legislature has a major piece of unfinished business to address. It needs to fix the flawed county legislator term-limit law.

This 1995 law approved by county voters limits service on the Legislature to 12 consecutive years. But some people read the word consecutive as meaning no breaks whatsoever - even for a few days when you have every intention of coming back.

County attorney Fred Westphal holds that interpretation, which effectively means that Petrus, Netti and now Fearon all have started their term limit clocks over.

Both Petrus and Fearon have said they don't intend to serve beyond the limits established prior to their temporary resignations. In other words, they will abide by the spirit of the law. But you can't count on everyone doing that, which is why this Legislature needs to get the law fixed.

There was momentum for a fix early in 2006, but nothing materialized. Perhaps the business of hiring a county manager and then dealing with the asbestos scandal was a distraction. But that's a poor excuse.

We urge lawmakers to make it a priority to get a proposed revision to the term limit law - one that has no loopholes - before voters this fall, and that means they have to get to work quickly.