The Cost of Corruption

The corruption plaguing Wisconsin state government comes with a heavy price for taxpayers. Case in point: in 2001 the state agreed to buy the private Stanley prison for $87.1 million. The Journal Sentinel now reports that the building was not up to code, and will cost taxpayers an additional $5 million to repair. According to the Journal Sentinel story:

"The prison played a role in the corruption conviction of former state Senate Majority Leader Chuck Chvala (D-Madison). Dominion executives gave $125,000 to Independent Citizens for Democracy, a campaign group Chvala illegally controlled in the summer of 2001, records in Chvala's criminal case show." Chavala, originally against the prison purchase, agreed to it after the contributions came in.

Employees of Dominion Asset Services, builders of the prison, gave then-governor Scott McCallum $4,000. Then Assembly speaker (and now convicted felon) Scott Jensen led the push to purchase the prison during the 2001 legislative session at a time when his friend Ray Carey was working as a paid lobbyist for Dominion. Carey was a former Director of the Assembly Republican Caucus.

Senator Fred Risser (D-Madison) told the Journal Sentinel that "this was a serious mistake, and a boondoggle of the nth degree."

More on the cost of corruption in Wisconsin can be found in the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign's Graft Tax reporting.