Cost of Recall Elections More Than $13M, GAB Says
Estimates in February put the cost of recall upwards of $17 million. The real figures are closer to $13 million, which is still a big chunk of change.
The Government Accountability Board issued a press release Friday saying the 2012 recall elections cost taxpayers more than $13 million.
Specifically, the statement says the May recall primary ran up a bill of $6.3 million. That figure includes:
- $2.3 million in poll worker wages;
- $1.7 million in staff salaries;
- $728,000 for ballots; and
- $617,000 for programming.
The June recall general election cost more, coming in at $7.2 million. This amount also accounts for a variety of functions:
- $2.5 million in poll worker wages;
- $1.9 million in staff salaries;
- $984,000 for ballots; and
- $596,000 in programming costs.
“Instead of conducting two primaries and two elections this year, Wisconsin election officials will be conducting six elections, which added approximately $13.5 million in unbudgeted costs,” said Kevin Kennedy, director and general counsel of the GAB in the statement. “These unplanned elections also put significant stress on Wisconsin’s clerks, who have many other duties beyond elections.”
The final tallies are from information transmitted to the GAB from municipal and county clerks, and the final total has not been audited, the release said.
Where the state saved money was with the GAB itself. According to the release, the agency expected to spend almost $1 million — $975,000 — preparing for the recall elections, including verifying recall petitions. Instead, costs came in at $663,000.
In January, residents learned that the GAB was predicting a $9 million to $20 million cost for the recall elections. The estimates were pulled together after Rep. Robin Vos, R-Rochester, made a request for the information.
In August 2011, Vos announced he would seek a change to the way Wisconsin does recall elections, and he introduced a bill that would limit recalls to criminal activity or malfeasance in office.
After the GAB's release went out, Vos issued a written statement, saying he is more committed than ever to recalling the recalls.
"Next session I intend to re-introduce a constitutional amendment to reform our recall laws," he wrote. "We need to establish real grounds for a recall election and not be at the mercy of special interest groups when they’re angered by a particular vote."
Because Vos wants to amend the state Constitution, passing the amendment requires approval from two legislative sessions and a statewide referendum.
Gary Tefft
6:22 pm on Friday, September 14, 2012
Golly! That's almost as much as the damage estimates to fix the marble walls of the Capitol building. Fortunately, someone pointed out that the signs had only been taped in place, so it was unnecessary to use jackhammers to remove them.
GearHead
8:51 pm on Friday, September 14, 2012
Gary, get a grip! What about the crap and urine? Jackhammers couldn't remove that stench, either. So what is your point? Jerk!
Bren
8:57 pm on Friday, September 14, 2012
What crap and urine? Floors had to be mopped and paper picked up. The rest was a tissue of lies.
The patriots were very respectful of what is their State Capitol too.
Nuitari
9:42 pm on Friday, September 14, 2012
Bren, when you state "Patriots" and "being respectful", are you including the high class of your side that includes Segway Boy Jeremy Ryan and his ilk?
Steve ®
9:48 pm on Friday, September 14, 2012
Bren's hero and face of the blue fisters. How much did you donate Bren?
https://www.wepay.com/donations/56348?fb_comment_id=fbc_283299398443093_1247187_283384691767897#fc71a78cc
https://www.wepay.com/donations/83934
Nuitari
10:01 pm on Friday, September 14, 2012
Steve, I subscribed to that retard on Facebook. It's like having a joke of the day.
GearHead
10:04 pm on Friday, September 14, 2012
@ Bren: "Patriots" were also interfering with elected officials being able to do their jobs, creating a toxic waste site over their "occupancy" and sexually assaulting those who were naive enough to believe they were representing a just cause. How else do you explain the clean up crew wearing hazmat suits, and victims being told to forget it. Yeah, lots of respect going on Bren. You're kidding, right?
Steve ®
8:48 pm on Friday, September 14, 2012
Never forget what the blue fisters put us through. And the billion + dollars they still continue to rob from our taxpayers..
GearHead
8:52 pm on Friday, September 14, 2012
So after everything is said and done, no big deal if you are a Democrat. Cost of doing business.
Bren
9:00 pm on Friday, September 14, 2012
Well, I didn't want to finance ALEC union stripping, ALEC voter ID arguments, high school sex ed curriculum diddling, or slashing nearly $1 billion out of children's education. This, for me, is something I'm happy to pay for, democracy at work.
And it was successful, for a short while at least, in keeping our state from turning into an ALEC shrine. Worth every penny.
Steve ®
9:27 pm on Friday, September 14, 2012
What amount did you write the check for to the WDR to pay for this recall?
Bren
11:35 pm on Friday, September 14, 2012
I'm a taxpayer, Steve. You're a business owner and you don't know about taxes? Hope your employees are double-checking their pay stubs! ; )
Steve ®
12:25 am on Saturday, September 15, 2012
What amount did you write the check for Bren?
Your a miniscule tax payer who's revenue was not budgeted in unexpected expenses. As a blue fister I know this is hard to understand.
I suppose we need to further cut public workers benefits and compensation to pay for this added expense.
Steve ®
11:50 am on Monday, September 17, 2012
What amount did you write the check for Bren?
Steve ®
9:28 pm on Monday, September 17, 2012
I take that as you didn't write the check to support the WDR in a "cause" you feel justified. We will continue to make cuts to the public workforce and you are directly responsible for their loss of employment.
Heather Asiyanbi
9:06 pm on Friday, September 14, 2012
One of the local news stations was asking people on the street if the cost of recall was worth it. One person said, "We live in a democracy so yes, it's worth it no matter the outcome. I would say the same no matter what party the governor belongs to."
What do you think of that statement?
Bren
9:13 pm on Friday, September 14, 2012
The best possible statement on the subject I've heard, Heather.
Steve ®
9:25 pm on Friday, September 14, 2012
Typical blue fister statement.
Jay Sykes
9:44 pm on Friday, September 14, 2012
'We' don't have to pay, Bren said, "This, for me, is something I'm happy to pay for".
We 'all' thank-you,Bren, and to prove that you are a person of your word, I'm sure you will upload/post a copy of both sides of your canceled check.
Somehow, I think i'll be getting a smart-ALEC response from Bren on this one....;)
Nuitari
9:45 pm on Friday, September 14, 2012
This sounds like the same result of brainwashing the DNC had going on at their convention. People were asked if profits should be outlawed at and everyone was like, "sure, maybe, I don't know." When asked if they would support Obama doing it, they said, "sure, anything he wants." These clowns think all this fiasco is democracy as long as they get to open their yappers and make someone else pay for it.
GearHead
9:55 pm on Friday, September 14, 2012
That persons statement is a corruption of what "democracy" is all about. What is the point of elections if his mob rule goes out and tries to overturn it? Especially over a lawful vote?
I'll bet that person doesn't pay much in taxes, and probably receives more government candy than he/she lets on. Did he feel the same over tfew bucks spent on the Wanggaard recount? Yeah, didn't think so.
Stormy Weather
12:34 am on Saturday, September 15, 2012
@ Heather - It appears from all the nice happy banter going back and forth between people, that the Recalls were worth it??? Wouldn't it have been nice, if we could have used that 13 million to maybe promote tourism, help the veterans, or fix up our schools.
T Van Parys
8:34 am on Saturday, September 15, 2012
Stormy Weather - you are right on the money. Unfortunately, the blue fisters only care about their own pockets, not the taxpayers or the children.
John Wilson
11:17 am on Saturday, September 15, 2012
DEMOCRACY IS NOT CHEAP...
It is well worth both the blood and treasure that we spend to maintain and protect it.
It is truly unfortunate that that the RED, COMMUNIST MOAMMAR WALKER PARTY won this battle - thanks to an overwhelming amount of corporate $$$, and an electorate who bought the TV mantra - however, this is really only one of many, many battles in this very long WAR...
THE FIGHT FOR REAL DEMOCRACY GOES ON…
I hope that someone, other than me, noticed that a judge just threw MOAMMAR WALKER'S "Collective Bargaining Bill” UNCONSTITUTIONAL... OUT!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2012/09/14/wis-judge-strikes-down-law-curbing-collective-bargaining-for-public-workers/
EAT IT, REDS!
Bewildered
2:15 pm on Saturday, September 15, 2012
Wow! Who is this guy?
Bewildered
2:27 pm on Saturday, September 15, 2012
Ah, Mr Wilson's following quote explains his deep wisdom on all matters
"John Wilson
1:46 pm on Wednesday, August 22, 2012
As I see it, an ovum/fetus has no RIGHT TO LIFE"
Nuitari
7:51 pm on Saturday, September 15, 2012
John Wilson is a fine example of a bitter liberal who just spiked the football even though his team is down by 3 touchdowns at the two minute warning.
Greg
4:39 pm on Saturday, September 15, 2012
It may be a good idea for the "Teabaggers" to hold some protests at the Dane County Court House. I would love to hear the crying when the bills started to add up there.
John Wilson
5:06 pm on Saturday, September 15, 2012
Bewildered –
Yes, that would be a very fitting name for someone who responds on a blog discussing the “Cost of The Recall Elections” with a post from a blog 3-weeks plus old… and, on a completely different topic, as well…
Because I am a kind person, I will attempt to enlighten your bewilderment.
A RIGHT, to me, is something that no government can abridge or take away from any citizen.
[I am writing here about human beings, already expelled from the human uterus in a viable condition, not amoebas, caterpillars, or gametes…]
Seeing as, in the great UNITED STATES OF AMERICA we typically execute –take the life away – of people for a wide variety of crimes – exceptions – there is, in reality, no RIGHT TO LIFE for any human citizen.
There is only the potential promise that you may keep your precious LIFE, as long as you adhere to a multiplicity of ever-changing laws and ordinances promulgated by the states and the Supreme Court…
What we all have is a provisional privilege of life… only that and nothing more…
Try and keep up with the current discussion…
Nuitari
7:54 pm on Saturday, September 15, 2012
"What we all have is a provisional privilege of life… only that and nothing more…"
So, then you do AGREE that "worker's rights" ARE NOT in the constitution? Sheep like you think they are.
John Wilson
11:38 pm on Saturday, September 15, 2012
Nuitari –
You are in an alternate universe in which NOTHING is relevant to planet Earth.
I do NOT AGREE with YOU or your RED COMMUNIST REPUBLICAN PARTY at all on WORKER’S RIGHTS!
The CONSTITUTION is replete with both direct RIGHTS and INFERRED RIGHTS, which are derived from Supreme Court interpretations – way beyond your puerile mind, reason and educational level – of these direct RIGHTS and the court’s interpretation of those…
In the final analysis, it really does not matter what my position is on WORKER’S RIGHTS – as long as it is against the views of the RED COMMUNIST REPUBLICAN PARTY – as the UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT, NOT THE STATE OF WISCONSIN SUPREME COURT, will render the final verdict on this issue…
[Nuitari & Bewildered] same fruit-loop should become organized; between them, they almost form one very schizoid human mind…
The Anti-Alinsky
2:41 am on Sunday, September 16, 2012
@John Wilson ...RED COMMUNIST REPUBLICAN PARTY...?
I thought we were supposed to be towards the Nazi end of things. Why are we suddenly the RED COMMUNIST REPUBLICAN PARTY? Are Republicans somehow magically both?
John Wilson
12:55 pm on Sunday, September 16, 2012
Anti-Alinsky –
RED, because you choose the same nefarious color [RED] as the infamous COMMUNIST PARTY to represent your mind-numbing party.
COMMUNIST, because you employ the same racist, radical, divisive, nationalistic perversions that foster class-warfare, would reduce public labor unions to mere slaves of government, and, ultimately, because you are the TAKE AWAY PARTY…
TAKE AWAY:
Labor Rights
Collective Bargaining
Women’s right to equal pay
Women’s right to healthcare and contraception
Women’s reproductive rights [Personhood Amendment] or the mere thought of intercourse
Women’s fundamental right to engage their sexuality at their choosing
Women’s right – guaranteed by the Supreme Court – to terminate an unwanted pregnancy even if it means the woman’s death
A women’s right to actually plan when and where to start a family
Access to state/federal courts to address employment and other grievances
The right to protest, by limiting it to groups of (4) 5,000 miles from the actual event
Stem cell research
Pell grants for poor college students
Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid and Title X
The Tax Deduction for Home Mortgages
The right of LGBT folks to engage in full marriage equality
I could call you the RED, RELIGIOUS RIGHT, SOCIAL ENGINEERING, CONTROL FREAK PARTY that wants to return AMERICA to the 16th century…
The Anti-Alinsky
11:29 am on Sunday, September 16, 2012
@Bewildered: "Wow! Who is this guy?"
Great question. John Wilson is apparently a very confused individual that selects only key parts of a discussion in an attempt to prove his point.
On one hand, he like the term "RED COMMUNIST REPUBLICAN PARTY", yet still tries to paint Conservatives like Paul Ryan as Nazis. He also tries to equate a viable fetus as an amoeba that has no rights at all. Why does a fetus have no right to life? Simply because it has not been born yet? The only difference between a viable 40 week old baby pre-birth and post-birth is it's attachment to it's mother through the umbilical cord. Yet the Liberal's continue to fight on to let us kill one, but not the other. Strange to me.
And JW's odd interpretation of rights seems to ignore how one individual's rights affects another's. It was Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. that said "The right to swing my fist ends where the other man's nose begins." Simply put it means no one should have the ability to trample on someone's right by exercising their own rights. Act 10 is a great example, since it addressed paying outrageous pay and benefits at the expense of overly burdensome taxes.
John Wilson
1:06 pm on Sunday, September 16, 2012
Anti-Alinsky -
And JW's odd interpretation of rights seems to ignore how one individual's rights affects another's. It was Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. that said "The right to swing my fist ends where the other man's nose begins."
I'd remember what you said the next time you want to force a woman to carry a gamete to term; it is her body, her reproductive cycle and you have no right in her body...
Yes, it's wonderful to see you argue for my position... it would probably mean something were you not completely schizoid...