Senate refuses to give up 12 jobs left from caucus system
10:31 AM 10/23/01
Scott Milfred State government reporter
The state Senate refused Tuesday to give up 12 positions left over from last week's demise of the legislative caucus system.
The Senate, on a 27-6 vote, turned back an attempt to eliminate the 12 jobs that critics say create "shadow caucuses" in the offices of top Senate leaders.
Sen. Mike Ellis, R-Neenah, said keeping the dozen positions will further concentrate power in the hands of Senate leaders and hurt the Senate's credibility with voters.
"We did the right thing when we did away with the caucus staff," Ellis said. "But we're doing the wrong thing when we add back 12 positions. It looks to me and the people on the street that we just don't get it."
Ellis and five other senators - Robert Cowles, R-Green Bay; Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau; Gary George, D-Milwaukee; Frank Lasee, R-De Pere, and Dale Schultz, R-Richland Center - voted to eliminate the jobs.
But Senate Majority Leader Chuck Chvala, D-Madison, defended keeping the positions: six in his office and six in the office of Senate Minority Leader Mary Panzer, R-West Bend. The Legislature has "significantly reduced" staffing, Chvala said, but some extra people are still needed to help prepare the massive state budget in a timely fashion.
"We need to be able to function," he said. "We need to be able to get things done."
Ellis countered that the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau, a state agency that remains fully staffed, does most of the budget work.
Both houses of the Legislature OK'd a bill last week eliminating from state statutes all references to the caucus system, a controversial group of 62 state employees accused of illegally campaigning for state leaders on state time.
As part of a deal to eliminate the caucuses, legislative leaders shifted 24 of the positions to leaders' offices. The four legislative leaders - Chvala, Panzer, Assembly Speaker Scott Jensen, R-Waukesha, and Assembly Minority Leader Spencer Black, D-Madison - were to get six positions each.
But the Assembly voted last week not to fill its 12 positions. Rep. Mike Powers, R-Albany, who led the push to eliminate the extra jobs in the Assembly, said he was "very disappointed but not surprised" that the Senate is choosing to keep its allotment.
"It will only foster a growing suspicion among the public," Powers said Tuesday.
The caucuses cost taxpayers $3.9 million a year. Under approved legislation that Republican Gov. Scott McCallum intends to sign, the caucuses will officially cease Jan. 1.
Cowles said eliminating the 12 positions that were shifted from the caucuses to the Senate would save taxpayers about $500,000.
George, a Democratic candidate for governor, said the dozen jobs will only further concentrate Chvala's power.
One of Chvala's former aides accused him last week of using his staff to do campaign work on state time, but Chvala denied it.
Jay Heck, executive director of Common Cause in Wisconsin, said he thinks the issue will come up again.
"There's still questions about whether or not this is a satisfactory resolution of the caucus problem," Heck said. "The Senate has created shadow caucuses, and they're determined to keep them."