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Senate approves panel merger

After receiving approval from the state's Joint Finance Committee last week, the state Senate took on Senate Bill 1, where it passed in a largely bipartisan 28 to 5 vote Tuesday.

SB 1 would combine the state's existing Ethics and Elections boards in an effort to fight potential campaign-finance and election fraud in the state. The legislation comes partly in response to the Capitol Corruption Scandal, also known as the Legislative Caucus Scandal, which led to the conviction of two former Democratic senators and the expected trials of three other Republican lawmakers.

"I think the reason it passed so overwhelmingly is that with the recent convictions … legislators have 'gotten religion,'" Common Cause in Wisconsin Executive Director Jay Heck said.

The newly created Government Accountability Board, comprised of a four-member panel, would enjoy expanded powers to prosecute public officials who abuse their positions.

"The bill will preserve and protect the strengths that are already there in the Ethics and Elections boards, but it will also help solve some of the weaknesses too," Mike Boerger, spokesperson for bill author Sen. Michael Ellis, R-Neenah, said. "Before, had the Ethics Board wanted to pursue an investigation, they would have had to go to the Legislature and ask the very people being convicted for permission."

According to SB 1 supporters, Tuesday's Senate passage signals an important step in combating political corruption by advancing essential legislation to curb potential fraudulent behavior.

"There is a realization that the boards as they presently exist are not proper deterrents to the corruption Wisconsin has faced," Heck said. "I think it's safe to say had Senate Bill 1 been in place 10 years ago, we would have avoided the worst scandal in Wisconsin history, the Legislative Caucus Scandal," Heck added, referring to the 2002 incident in which a number of state legislators were indicted on charges of corrupt campaign-finance practices.

Conversely, some legislators find fault with the initiative, citing concerns over the removal of public voice from the indictment system, which currently requires political prosecutions to be handled by elected district attorneys.

According to SB 1, the combined board's four members would be nonpartisan individuals appointed by the governor and nominated by a panel of the Wisconsin Supreme Court chief justice and University of Wisconsin and Marquette University law school deans.

Opponents, however, argue partisan nominations are inevitable, putting the public at the mercy of members who may abuse their prosecutorial authority.

Additionally, a question of funding — a provision remaining ambiguously absent from the initiative — is causing adversaries to deny support.

"The real main reason I voted against the bill is that I am not convinced or clear about the amount of money it will cost," senator and former SB 1 coauthor Alan Lasee, R-De Pere, said. "The state is in the red. We don't have the money."

Lasee, who withdrew his sponsorship in June, also questioned how necessary such a costly measure is, calling it a "cruel, phony hoax" to "needlessly spend a half million dollars" when justice seems to be functioning properly under the current system.

However, Boerger disagreed.

"[The Government Accountability Board] doesn't cost any more than it currently costs to run those two agencies," Boerger added.

Though the Ethics Board supports joining the two entities, the State Elections Board is voicing fiscal concerns differing from Lasee's pointing to the harmful effects of and inadequate funding.

"The nine-member Elections Board is opposing the merger of the two agencies," Elections Board Public Information Officer Kyle Richmond said. "We're talking about making the board smaller and giving it double the amount of work [without] a guarantee of funding."

In response, supporters maintain these details of funding will be further addressed in a piece of "trailer legislation," an additional bill stipulating specific financial provisions.

SB 1 must be approved by both the Assembly and Gov. Jim Doyle before being signed into law.

"I'm sure there will be some opposition, but the chances of it passing in the Assembly is promising," Heck said. "If this is enacted into law, it would be the most significant reform of its kind since the 1970s, when the Ethics Board was established."