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State Journal photo/SCOTT SEIDRep. Lolita Schneiders poses with plunder box used by legislators.BoxesContinued from Page 1A' 9gle liquor, stationery and stamps out of the Capitol.Today, rumors are tamer: Legislators, it is said, use plunder boxes to hold the grandkids’ toys, or to store blankets at the feet of their beds.Through the Progressives’ reforms of the 1880s, the post-Watergate reforms of the 1970s and into the ethics-conscious 1990s, this curious fixture of the Wisconsin Legislature has survived.“It’s a very hoary tradition here,” Holzhueter said.In the past two years, all 33 members of the Senate automatically received plunder boxes, according to the Senate Chief Clerk's office.In the Assembly, where members must deduct the expense from their office budgets, 73 of 99 legislators got the boxes, state records show.The boxes cost $150 for the basic piodel, $160 for the deluxe with a better finish.Some lawmakers don’t like to talk about them.■‘What’s the matter?” asked Rep. Marlin Schneider, D-Wisconsin Rapids, who owns 11 of the boxes. “Don t you have anything better to do?”Senate President Fred Risser, a fourth-generation lawmaker, apparently has the state's largest collection of plunder boxes.The Madison Democrat has 18 boxes — one for each session in which he has served — plus a few from his father’s tenure as a legislator. Boxes given to his earlier ancestors have been misplaced.“I get them every two years and I need them every two years,’’ said Risser, who keeps legislative correspondence and drafts of bills inboxes scattered throughout his home, law office and Capitol office.Risser said the boxes are a lot cheaper than files,” but admitted,“I don’t have the slightest idea what they cost. You gave me a figure that sounds quite high to me.”He praised the boxes as a “record of Wisconsin history” and said publicity about the boxes would emphasize “something that pales in comparison to what we’re trying to do around here.”n99But other lawmakers said the boxes have become anachronistic.Rep. Lolita Schneiders, R-Meno-monee Falls, who has six plunder boxes, at first said they are fine coffee tables and file holders.She complained, however, that the handiwork is uneven.Sometimes I think they parole the good carpenters too early, Schneiders said.And when told how much the boxes cost, Schneiders quickly concluded: “It’s not a justifiable expense under current conditions. I think it should be looked at as something that’s past its time.” Rep. Scott Jensen, R-Waukesha, who was elected to the Legislature last January, was amused to find out that he was entitled to a plunder box.He didn’t order one.“It’s as out of date ... as eight-track tapes and horse-drawn carriages,” Jensen said.Such complaints aren’t new. In 1986, then-Rep. John Merkt, now an aide to Assembly Minority Leader David Prosser, called the boxes just a plunder of taxpayers’ money” and urged they be abolished.The head of a nonpartisan government watchdog group was surprised to learn that plunder boxes haven’t disappeared.William Hauda, executive director of Common Cause in Wisconsin, suggested “it would be a helluva lot cheaper to just give these guys cardboard bankers’ boxes like every other business uses.”Like several of his colleagues, Rep. Stephen Freese, R-Hazel Green, said it might make sense for each legislator to receive one plunder box, just as he has.“I can see one for papers you don’t want to lose,” he said. “But 12 of them?”uState Journal reporter Brent Peterson and Library Director Ron Larson also contributed to this story.PostmasterSend address chanoes to:1901 Fish Hatchery Rood Post Office Box 8058 Madison, Wl 53708Second class postage paid at Madison, Wisconsin (USPS 688-720)ISSN: 0749-405XW|SUI\S|\S'| \| Joi IIMI.
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