It’s enough to make any Wisconsin taxpayer sick.
For 40 years, state legislators have enjoyed a special benefit that not only grants them sick leave, but also allows them to bank all unused sick days and use the cash value of those days to pay for health insurance after they retire from the legislature.
“It’s a health-care golden parachute for legislators,” said State Rep. David Steffen, R-Green Bay.
Because lawmakers aren’t required to call in sick when they miss a day in the Capitol, few ever use any of their sick leave. The unused days pile up over the years, and the average lawmaker is entitled to tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars by the time he retires.
It’s estimated that serving and retired lawmakers have $3.4 million available to them through this benefit.
“People don’t realize this is part of our compensation package as legislators,” Steffen told Wisconsin Watchdog. “It really doesn’t make sense, considering our unique employment situation with the state and the taxpayers.”
“I’m not comfortable with a public servant being able to walk away with over $100,000 in benefits, especially when it’s not transparent [to] the public.”
Steffen, a freshman legislator, has made ending this sick leave benefit a priority.
“In my campaign I promised I would address this with the first bill I wrote,” Steffen said.
The Assembly hasn’t yet taken up that bill, AB 233.
That lack of progress doesn’t surprise Steffen’s Republican colleague from Green Bay, State Sen. Robert Cowles.
Since 2007, Cowles has repeatedly introduced or co-sponsored bills that would eliminate the benefit.
Until this year, the Senate took up none of those bills.
“Nobody argued against them. People against them just hide and sidestep around them,” Cowles said.
Cowles is more optimistic about this year’s bill.
“We actually had a hearing and an executive session. There had never been a hearing before,” Cowles said.
SB 183 passed the Committee on Government Operations and Consumer Protection with only one vote against it.
Sen. Nikiya Harris Dodd, D-Milwaukee, cast the sole vote against SB 183. Harris Dodd claimed she was concerned the bill might be the beginning of an effort to restrict sick leave benefits for all state employees.
Both Cowles and Steffen reject that reasoning.
“This is only meant to touch legislators,” Cowles explained.
“I would not support any initiative to remove sick leave from any other state employees,” Steffen said.
Steffen believes that a new approach this year could win the necessary votes to end the sick leave benefit.
Both the Assembly and Senate versions of the bill would eliminate sick leave for legislators in the future but allow them to receive the cash value for the unused sick leave already accrued.
“It’s a political reality that I don’t think there’d be any possibility of it passing if I said everyone is losing not only future sick leave but also previously accrued sick leave,” Steffen said.
But getting his fellow legislators to give up even that much is still a tough sell, according to Cowles.
“All you can do as a legislator is introduce your proposal, make your argument, and do the best you can. Some things make it, some things don’t,” Cowles said.
“I hope that this makes it. I think it’s the right thing to do.”
Originally published in Watchdog.org.