With the news of David King running for Wisconsin Secretary of State, some Q&A are in order to help everyone understand this role… we’ll be starting a multi-part series on what does the Secretary of State do and what really should be done with this office.
What does the Secretary of State do?
We’re not entirely sure! Stoughton resident Bernard Mixtacki thinks this is the first thing that should be done to “alleviate current and future state budgetary woes”:
“Eliminate the position of secretary of state. Even the Blue Book hints at the uselessness of the office by citing the secretary performed a broad range of duties that are now delegated to specialized departments of the executive branch. The current budget for the office is over $1.5 million with 8.5 employees.” (http://www.madison.com/wsj/home/forum/reader/456578 )
Occasionally a print publication will try to figure out what the job of the Secretary of State is. Milwaukee Magazine had a story a while back “What Does Doug LaFollette do All Day? (http://www.milwaukeemagazine.com/murphyslaw/default.asp?NewMessageID=11167)
“A recent story in Madison’s Isthmus suggested that the office now functions “as a huge government filing cabinet where one can find land deeds, oaths of office and the complete Blue Book collection since 1853. The secretary’s most notable task is affixing the state’s Great Seal to all of the official acts of the governor.”
According to the Secretary of State’s owhttp://www.sos.state.wi.us/index.html:
“The Office of the Secretary of State is headed by an elected Secretary of State, whose term of office is four years. Wisconsin’s Constitution requires the Secretary of State to maintain the official acts of the Legislature and Governor, and to keep the Great Seal of the State of Wisconsin and affix it to all official acts of the Governor.”
Store files and guard the seal. Nothing against these tasks in general – someone needs to do them, but why do we have an entire office and elected official tasked with this job? Why did the budget require $1,564,000 for the Office of the Secretary of State to handle this?
Senator Alan Lasee has a good point: “In this economic climate, it is not fiscally prudent to continue wasting taxpayer resources on offices that serve no purpose.” (http://www.legis.wi.gov/senate/sen01/news/Press/2009/pr2009-006.asp )
Maybe we should do what other states do and simply merge it with the Office of the Lieutenant Governor or another office.
For more on why we need to eliminate the Wisconsin Secretary of State, view the other posts on the subject here at RandyMelchert.com.
