Everett Hagany, Fox Cities
Delegate Russel chose her bill because she feels that gerrymandering in Wisconsin is a big issue. According to Oxford Languages, gerrymandering is defined as “manipulating the boundaries of an electoral constituency”. It gives favor to one political party, which takes power away from the people. The suggested penalty for disobeying this proposed legislation is a $150,000 fine. Now that may seem like a lot, but that is only a few thousand dollars. Perhaps the politicians who have way more money and way more resources would keep doing it because they were able to pay the fine. Because of this, she decided to make it $150,000 because it was an amount that politicians could pay but wouldn’t like paying, whereas a few thousand dollars wouldn’t bother them all that much. She decided that there would be 12 members on the board: 5 Democrats, 5 Republicans, and two [independent] members to act as middle ground between the Democrats and Republicans. These board members would be paid with the funds from a 1% raise in income tax. Delegate Russel chose income tax because it’s a common use for funding and, because of inflation, increases in income tax should happen to keep tax flow at about the same value.
Delegate Russel’s bill has now been debated. Many thought that it was not a good idea and, as a result, the bill failed.