OPINION & EDITORIAL
Politics as usual
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Also by Paul Temple:
- Stop genocide in Darfur (April 28, 2005)
- America turns blind eye to Darfur (December 5, 2005)
- Examining The Badger Herald from outside (January 26, 2006)
- Newspapers must take extreme care in dealing with victim identity (February 2, 2006)
- Editorial on Covenant plan inadequately researched (February 9, 2006)
Related Stories:
- Real student politics (April 23, 2002)
- Covering the gap (March 10, 2004)
- A mixed review for the Regents (October 14, 2003)
- Doyle misleads Wisconsin taxpayers with budget (July 31, 2003)
- A welcome development (April 3, 2002)
by Paul Temple
Thursday, July 3, 2003
Before you come back to school this fall, check your tuition bill. You will notice that it is getting higher. The Wisconsin State Legislature, facing lean economic times, increasing costs, and declining tax revenues, is in the process of slashing the budget of the UW System to the tune of $250 million. With the Republican-led Assembly and Senate supporting the cut, and no opposition coming from Democratic Governor Jim Doyle, the cut is virtually assured – and with it, tuition hikes, staff cuts, poorer academic advising, and ever worse class availability.
Several arguments have been made in favor of this cut, and the subsequent “offset” through tuition hikes and cuts in academic services. The UW System does comprise a not-so-avoidable piece of the state’s budget pie. It also provides world-class education, especially at UW-Madison, for a very low price – perhaps the best bargain in the Big Ten. Why not, many legislators ask, cut the budget and raise the tuition? Why not ask the students to pony up a bit more for such great services when the state budget faces such hard times?
As students and, more importantly, as citizens we should ask these state legislators the same question. Why aren’t they paying for the great services they receive?
What services, you ask? I’m talking about their legal bills.
That’s right, your state legislature decided to pay for its own legal bills with taxpayer money. And the bills are not for legal work related to being a state legislator. The bills are for the caucus scandal. State legislators and their staff were caught doing campaign work on state time, a violation of campaign law. Rather than pay for their defenses themselves, they are hiring high-priced Madison law firms. They are then footing us the bill, to the tune of $580,000 in the Assembly alone.
The bills don’t stop there. The Assembly spent another $118,000 on elections board settlements, $40,000 on a lawsuit to stop the legal fees, and $17,000 on a lawsuit that attempted to uncover who was receiving the legal fees. That may not sound like a lot compared to the $250 million dollar cut, but under an agreement reached with the Attorney General in January, this practice will continue indefinitely.
So now, as you save your summer pay to cover your increased tuition, remember where the priorities are. State legislators have decided that taxpayer money is better spent on their own legal troubles rather than your education.
Remember that there is a lawyer somewhere billing taxpayers at $150 an hour, while you pay an extra $350 a semester to wonder why that class you need for your major is not available. Remember that state legislators could have hired a few more academic advisors, or hired a professor for that class you need. Remember that they thought their own lawyers – and their own hides - were more important. Remember that it did not have to be that way.
Paul Temple (ptemple@badgerherald.com) is a senior majoring in political science and philosophy.
