Right Wisconsin reports that Reps. Michael Schraa (R–Oshkosh) and Tyler August (R–Lake Geneva) propose a constitutional amendment to eliminate the offices of secretary of state and state treasurer.

A news release from Schraa and August points out:

“The duties performed by these officials are obsolete and are already performed by other areas of government, but yet the taxpayers pay over $2 million for their salaries, benefits, and staff,” said Schraa. “This bill is a common-sense reform that the legislature should adopt immediately.”

Recent actions by the legislature have greatly reduced the role of both elected officials and left them with few meaningful duties.  Pending Governor Walker’s signature, the recently-passed state budget reduced the Treasurer’s office to the sole duty of sitting on the Board of Commissioners of Public Lands.  In the wake of this change, current State Treasurer Schuller publicly stated that this lone duty amounts to “two 15-minute phone calls a month.”

Similarly, the statutory duties of the Secretary of State have been curtailed recently.  Earlier this year, Governor Walker signed Act 5, which repealed the Secretary of State’s duty to publish notices of new laws in the newspaper and eliminated his ability to selectively delay the publication of enacted bills like Act 10.  Currently, the only remaining duties of the Secretary of State are sitting on the Board of Commissioners of Public Lands, as well as three other minor duties. …

The proposal would amend the constitution to eliminate the two positions.  If passed by two successive legislatures in identical form, the question would go to a statewide referendum in the form of two separate questions to eliminate each position.  The bill is written to allow for elimination of one position but not the other, should the voters choose.

On my previous blog I advocated eliminating both of those jobs and merging whatever duties remain into the lieutenant governor’s position. This would also require, apparently, one of the seats on the Board of Commissioners of Public Lands to be eliminated or something, since for some reason the secretary of state and state treasurer sit on said board. But I will not charge Schraa or August with plagiarizing my idea, because good ideas need to happen regardless of who first proposed them.

I have been getting news releases from the secretary of state, who you may not know is Douglas La Follette, who claims to be a relative of Fighting Bob. La Follette claims that his position is, or should be, pro-business, since in other states the secretary of state handles incorporations. Which is a rather dubious argument given that nothing bad has happened to this state’s business climate as a result of having said incorporation listings transferred to the Department of Financial Institutions during the Tommy Thompson administration. (As it is, La Follette arguably should have been removed from office for failing to do his constitutional duty, selectively delaying the publication of Act 10 to facilitate legal challenges to the bill. Then again, had he been removed from office, who would have noticed?)

The state treasurer, Kurt Schuller, has actively been advocating the elimination of his office. In fact, he ran on just that in 2010. And he won, defeating the incumbent. That strikes me as a pretty clear indicator of how the voting public feels about the state treasurer’s position at least.

By the way: The secretary of state and the state treasurer each make $68,556 a year. For them to do what they (don’t) do for that kind of money is an absolute outrage. Even worse is the fact that La Follette employs four state employees and will spend, starting this week, $507,000 in this fiscal year, and Schuller has 9.95 state employees and will spend nearly $4.9 million this fiscal year. That’s about $5.5 million that should have been vetoed from the 2013–15 state budget, and should be removed permanently by the Legislature.