Complaint filed against Gard, Schultz,
Doyle, and others for felony
logrolling violations
Wisconsin Green Party calls for a thorough investigation and punishment
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 27th, 2005
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(Madison) - Madison Ald. Austin King today filed a nine-page complaint with Attorney General Peggy Lautenschlager, along with a mountain of evidence described in the letter. The letter accuses Assembly Speaker Gard, Senate Majority Leader Schultz, and Governor Doyle of having a quid pro quo agreement whereby Governor Doyle would sign the municipal minimum wage preemption bill, AB 49, in exchange for legislative acceptance of a DWD rule increasing the state minimum wage. Such backroom dealing is a direct violation of Wisconsin State Statutes 13.06, which classifies the commission of such an act as a Class I Felony. The Wisconsin Green Party supports Ald. King's actions, and is calling for a thorough investigation of his allegations, along with the effective punishment of any state elected officials who broke the law.
"The deal worked out between Doyle, Gard, and Schultz isn't just bad for low-wage workers, it's illegal. It's clear that Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce brokered a deal between the Governor and the Republican leadership, and it's time for Wisconsin's Attorney General to clean house," said Jill Busierre, Co-Chair of the Wisconsin Green Party.
Wisconsin's anti-logrolling statutes were the work of the progressive leadership in the 1911 Wisconsin State Legislature, which also passed the first workers' compensation law in this country, the first workable income tax in the country, a state life insurance program, legislation that aided farm cooperatives and agricultural education, and a corrupt practices act that was designed to clean up political activity, among other things. Wisconsin's heralded Home Rule statutes and constitutional amendments soon followed. The Wisconsin Green Party, as a direct descendent of the independent progressive political movements of the teens, twenties, and thirties, calls for the enforcement of Wisconsin's progressive-era clean government laws.
"The State Capitol, Fighting Bob LaFollette's 'Temple of Democracy,' needs a cleaning once again," said Ben Manski, a longtime Wisconsin Green Party activist. "The burden is on the Attorney General to take up that charge and work with reformers to make Wisconsin government transparent and accountable once again."
Ald. King is one of three Greens serving on the Madison Common Council, and one of eighteen Greens serving in elected office in Wisconsin today.
The Wisconsin Green Party is affiliated with the Green Party of the United States, and stands on the four pillars of Social & Economic Justice, Grassroots Democracy, Nonviolence, and Ecological Wisdom. For more information, visit http://www.wisconsingreenparty.org . The Green Party of the United States' website is http://www.gp.org.