Recent state legal bills show Wisconsin spent $2.1 million in legal fees to defend its redrawing of the state’s voting boundaries, which have prompted two Wisconsin senators to continue their advocacy on redistricting reform.
State Sens. Tim Cullen, D-Janesville, and Dale Schultz, R-Richland Center, co-authored a reform bill which would adopt the Iowa redistricting model and direct the nonpartisan Legislative Reference Bureau to draw the maps for approval by the state Legislature at no cost to Wisconsin taxpayers, according to a statement from the senators.
Cullen said in a statement he believes the reform bill would prevent the state from wasting money on hiring attorneys to redraw district maps and to defend the maps in courts. Cullen and Schultz said the “wasted dollars” account for the approximately $2 million burden in the current system.
“[The legal fee spending] simply makes no sense to me,” Schultz said in the statement. “Nonpartisan redistricting would literally save taxpayers millions.”
