Gard freezes out-of-state travel for representatives

by John Buchel

State Editor

Wisconsin’s state Assembly will suspend its reimbursement of out-of-state travel expenses because of the state’s dismal budget.

Assembly Speaker Rep. John Gard, R-Peshtigo, announced the freeze on travel expenses Monday as part of the Legislature’s continuing attempts to trim spending.

“With the state facing a $3.2 billion deficit, the Legislature has to lead by example in looking for ways to cut costs,” Gard said. “You can’t spend money you don’t have. That rule applies for Assembly travel just as much as it applies to other areas of this budget.”

Gard spokesman Steve Baas said that even though legislators do the business of the state of Wisconsin, there are appropriate and legitimate reasons to travel to other states for official business.

“There are national conferences and seminars where state legislators meet with national leaders and experts so they can learn about the legislative issues they are working on,” Baas said.

Gard acknowledged that out-of-state travel purposes such as national conferences can be extremely beneficial for legislators, but said that in tough times hard decisions must be made.

“I hope that if a member believes an out-of-state event will be critical to their job, they will still go but will find a way to pay for their travel out of their own pocket instead of the taxpayers’ pockets,” Gard said.

Baas said Gard’s cut was accepted with no disagreement from the Assembly and that the entire Assembly understands the motivation for the cuts.

Gard estimates the freeze will save the Assembly $140,000 in operating costs for the current session.

The Assembly Sergeant at Arms office has also changed its staffing, which will save an additional $355,000.

Both sides of the political spectrum are scraping budgets to help share the blow of state budget cuts. Last month, Gov. Jim Doyle announced his cabinet secretaries would not be accepting the 3 percent pay raise allotted for them in the budget but would instead donate the money back to the state’s general fund. Many legislators have returned their raises or asked that their raises be suspended until state employee contracts are approved.