GREEN BAY— New reporting from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is adding to growing scrutiny over the Wisconsin State Legislature’s use of taxpayer dollars to hire private attorneys, a practice that has cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars. State Rep. Amaad Rivera-Wagner (D-Green Bay) introduced legislation during the recently-concluded legislative session to restore transparency and ensure taxpayer dollars cannot be used for partisan gain.
“This is about restoring trust and basic accountability,” Rivera-Wagner said. “If taxpayer dollars can be used to play politics, then the system is working for politicians, not for people.”
The bill, Assembly Bill 396 (AB396), would have established clear guardrails on when outside counsel can be used, including stronger transparency requirements and limits on politically motivated spending when state legal representation is already available. Rivera-Wagner pointed to the investigation led by Michael Gableman as an example of what happens when those guardrails do not exist.
“We’ve already seen what happens when there are no guardrails,” Rivera-Wagner said. “Millions of taxpayer dollars get spent, trust gets eroded, and at the end of the day, people are left wondering who the system is actually working for.”
He emphasized the issue is not partisan, but systemic.
“The biggest challenges we face do not respect party lines, and neither should accountability,” Rivera-Wagner said. “This bill would have ensured public dollars are used for the public good, not partisan advantage.”
