News

State rethinks sick leave

Two Wisconsin state legislators, Sen. Ted Kanavas, R-Brookfield, and Sen. Alberta Darling, R-River Hills, introduced legislation Friday that would eliminate some legislative sick leave benefits.

Currently, retiring state legislators have the option to turn any unused sick leave time into a credit that can be used to purchase state-sponsored health insurance. The bill would eliminate this option for legislators, as well as for any elected official or appointee.

"The current sick leave system is a perk taxpayers can't afford and elected officials don't deserve," Darling said in a release Friday.

Darling announced earlier last week she would become the first senator to waive her option to convert sick leave to credit. She had earned over $40,000 so far in sick leave credit.

This legislation comes following Assembly Chief Patrick Fuller's decision to allow legislators to retroactively apply for sick leave requests if they file a memo with him, stating the dates missed and the number of hours of sick leave taken. A few legislators had previously been denied requests to retroactively file sick leave they had taken to recover from illnesses.

Some experts say this proposal is part of a larger effort to reform ethics in the state.

"On the scale of ethical problems that need to be fixed in Wisconsin, this is relatively small," said Jay Heck, executive director of the nonpartisan political watchdog group Common Cause in Wisconsin. "The biggest problem here was the fact that legislators had this benefit and then never reported the days they were sick so those days could be subtracted."

Heck added that legislators need to focus on creating a strong ethics and elections board that "actually deters corruption in state government." He said he hopes the sick leave details will be decided upon quickly so the Legislature can tackle these other more important reform issues.

This proposal is already receiving support from some of the state's elected officials. Representative-elect Rich Zipperer, R-Pewaukee, said he would refuse his option to turn unused sick leave into credit.

"I was elected to go to Madison and lower the tax burden, and a good place to start is by eliminating unnecessary spending," Zipperer, who takes office in Jan. 3, said in a release. "Few taxpayers receive such a generous benefit, and there is no good reason for elected officials to receive it."

Legislators will be able to vote on this new proposed bill when the Legislature reconvenes in January.