When it comes to Joint Finance,
location is everything

By John Huebscher

	John Huebscher

When Franklin Roosevelt was presented with the chance to select his ninth Supreme Court Justice he settled on Wiley Rutledge of Iowa.

Rutledge was a distinguished, though not particularly well known, judge. He was also from Iowa and no one on the Court at the time was from the Midwest. In telling Rutledge of his good fortune, FDR explained, "Wiley, you have geography."

Geography also plays into appointment to the legislature's biggest plum: the powerful Joint Committee on Finance. Not only does the 16-member panel craft the state budget, it passes judgment on all bills that call for the expenditure of tax dollars.

A seat on "Joint Finance" is sought after. And appointments to the panel shed insights both into which legislators have the trust of their colleagues for an important assignment and to the political geography of our state.

Since each party controls one house of the legislature, Democrats and Republican will each have eight seats on the Committee. The distribution of those seats says something about where the parties enjoy support.

Milwaukee County is Wisconsin's most populous and a long-time Democratic stronghold. It is no accident that two of the eight Democrats on the Finance Committee, Sen. Lena Taylor and, Rep. Pedro Colon, are from Milwaukee.

Dane County also cranks out large majorities for Democratic candidates and its delegation holds two seats: Sen. Mark Miller and Rep. Mark Pocan, both of Madison.

The populous Fox River Valley also rates attention and got it with Sen. Dave Hanson of Green Bay. Southeastern Wisconsin is represented with the newly elected Sen. John Lehman of Racine.

Of course, much of Wisconsin is rural and no party wants to ignore "out state." Central Wisconsin is often seen as a "swing area" and Douglas County, which includes the city of Superior, is a Democratic stronghold. Both are represented on the Committee in the persons of the panel's co-chairs, Sen. Russ Decker from Weston in Marathon County and Sen. Bob Jauch from Poplar in Douglas County.

The Republican leadership made similar calculations in selecting their members on the panel. If Milwaukee is reliably Democratic, the suburban communities around it tend to be Republican.

Two seats went to lawmakers who represent these suburbs: Sen. Alberta Darling of River Hills (whose district includes part of GOP vote rich Waukesha County) and Rep. Jeff Stone of Greendale. Southeast Wisconsin also has GOP representation with Rep. Robin Vos of Caledonia in Racine County.

Wisconsin's towns and small cities have been good areas for Republicans over the years and they too are well represented on the Committee.

Assembly co-chair Kitty Rhoades is from Hudson. Other "out state" Republican members include Rep. Dan Meyer (Eagle River), Rep. Steve Kestell (Elkhart Lake), Rep. Scott Suder (Abbotsford), and Sen. Luther Olsen (Berlin).

The members of the Joint Committee on Finance are among the hardest working in the Capitol. It is not a place for people of modest ability. But with only 16 seats and 132 legislators, tie-breaking factors are important. And sometimes, geography is an important "tie breaker."

(Huebscher is executive director of the Wisconsin Catholic Conference, the civil arm of the state's five diocesan bishops.)