I AM THE FORCE

Democratic State Representative Sheldon Wasserman has a great idea.

Slash number of counties; save money
By SHELDON WASSERMAN
Last Updated: Jan. 22, 2006

One of the reasons taxes are too high in Wisconsin is we have too much government. There is no reason to have 72 counties in this state. Last month, I introduced a bill that would reduce the number of counties from 72 to 18. The legislation has the potential to save millions of dollars. Taxpayers deserve real property tax savings, and that is what this bill delivers.

Since I seem to have gained a reputation for "shredding," I thought I'd take a few minutes to talk about something positive. Sheldon Wasserman is a good legislator, and the kind of guy we could use more of in the Wisconsin Legislature. His idea to reduce the number of counties and overstuffed county board members in Wisconsin is a brilliant outside-the-box idea that could reduce the size of government and cut property taxes. Why wouldn't we want to do this? The historical county borders of this state bear little connection to the realities or needs of 21st Century Wisconsin. Regional or metropolitan units of government would provide much more efficiency than our current duplicative model.

Wasserman seems to have grasped a central issue merely by looking around his community. He represents some of the suburban communities, like Shorewood and Whitefish Bay, just north of Milwaukee. Each community has its own police force, fire department, massive library and public works department. Shorewood and Whitefish Bay have each built megamillion dollar library palaces in recent years that are within walking distance of each other. Does this proliferation of governmental bodies and jurisdictions improve things for regular people? No, they simply lead to greater costs for taxpayers. And as we come to understand that regional economic development trumps village by village competition, the entire structure of our local government's should be open to reconsideration.

But back to Sheldon Wasserman. He's a doctor who apparently decided to get into public service to try and better his community. He doesn't appear to be driven by ego or partisanship, and seems to be willing to work with anyone interested in finding solutions. I've never heard him spit out angry words on the Assembly floor (a la Tim Carpenter,) or seen a Wasserman press release that personally attacks one of his colleagues (a la Mark Pocan.) He's not motivated to lead his caucus or become Governor some day, he just seems to want to tackle issues that come to his attention out of the experience of his constituents. If you take the time to look at his bill cosponsorships, you'll see an eclectic mix of meaningful issues that appear more pragmatic than doctrinaire.

Now I'm not saying that I agree with Sheldon Wasserman on all his issues, I'm just suggesting that he may have a superior approach. Could it be because he already has a "real" job, or that his political career is not all about personal aggrandizement? Could it be that he's avoided personalizing differences and demonizing his opponents? Maybe he just grasps the original meaning of public service. Back to the shredding. We don't have enough legislators like Sheldon Wasserman. If we had about 50 more like him, the place would be much more productive, professional and responsive to our needs. As I've written before, the Wisconsin Legislature is attracting all of the wrong type of people. From young punk partisans to retired nincompoops, we're being served by people not all that attuned to public service.

The wrongheaded term limits movement was an attempt to address this shortfall, and develop more citizen legislators like Sheldon Wasserman. It was a ridiculous abdication of voter responsibility, but it would have cut down on the Suder-Zukowski Model (see above.) The better solution would be people demanding more from their representatives, or even stepping up, like Wasserman, and becoming the representative themselves. While I'm sure every era has had its share of hacks, the percentage has undoubtedly increased dramatically over the years. If we could replace every Dave Travis or Bob Jauch or Dale Schultz with a real person in the Wasserman mode, we'd have a helluva lot better Legislature in Wisconsin. I hope people will one day discover this distinction, and replace the bad apples with a more Wasserman-like approach.