After a recent string of scandals in the Wisconsin Legislature over the past two years, two major reform bills are currently being proposed in the State Senate to prevent special interest group’s influence in state government.
“Wisconsin used to have a great reputation in terms of local government,” said Jay Heck, the executive director of Common Cause In Wisconsin. “We’re trying to restore that.”
Common Cause, the state’s largest non-partisan advocacy group, has joined forces with Senate Minority Leader Jon Erpenbach (D) and former majority leader Senator Mike Ellis (R) to negotiate with Gov. Jim Doyle to pass these bills before the current session ends in March.
Senate Bill 11 focuses on combining the State Ethics Board and State Election Board into a single agency to create a board of at least six members with 4-year staggered terms. Heck said the two boards currently are “paper tigers” that have no real power over the legislators.
“We believe this gives the board a chance to make a real difference,” said Julie Laundrie, Sen. Erpenbach’s chief of staff. “We still have a couple hurdles to jump over, but we’re making progress in getting this passed.”
The bill removes legislative leaders’ power to appoint board members, which in turn should remove any control legislative leaders have over it, Heck said.
Senate Bill 12 reforms Wisconsin’s current campaign finance laws, discouraging special interests from donating huge sums to specific candidates.
The bill also prohibits all campaign fund raising during the period that the
state budget is under consideration, thus reducing special interest influence over public policy-making, something that Sen. Gary George (D) and Sen. Chuck Chvala (D) have been accused of.
Most recently, former Senator Gary George pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiracy for accepting legal fee kickbacks paid by the social welfare organization Opportunities Industrialization Center of Greater Milwaukee Inc. According to the indictment, payments to George amounted to $270,000. George will most likely face five years in prison.
In 2001, Wisconsin unions and businesses gave $1.3 million to a national Democratic Party committee, which then returned a substantial amount of it to an organization Senator Chuck Chvala (D) illegally ran to avoid state campaign-finance laws. As many as five officials were arrested in connection with the case.
“Unless we change the system, we will continue to have these same types of problems,” Heck said.
But Steve Bass, press secretary for the Assembly Speaker John Gard (R), said corruption was of “great concern” but it is due to the existence of only a “few bad apples.”
“There are a few select people that have tried to tarnish our image,” Bass said. “But overall, we have outstanding elected officials on both sides working hard for the constituents of Wisconsin.”
With five current and former legislators charged with felonies, there is concern that cynicism is growing among Wisconsin voters, Heck said.
“People will be watching this very closely,” Heck said. “There is going to be a dark cloud hanging over the capital until we can put the correct reforms in place.”