MADISON, Wis. — Two consultants hired to analyze new legal boundary lines in Wisconsin after the state Supreme Court threw out the current Republican-drawn maps will each be paid up to $100,000 in taxpayer money under their contracts made public Thursday.
Each consultant is paid an hourly rate of $450, up to a total of $100,000, but the state director of courts has the authority to exceed the maximum amount if she determines it is necessary under the contracts.
Wisconsin is one of more than a dozen states currently grappling with challenges to redistricting maps that were redrawn after the release of the 2020 U.S. Census and first applied to the 2022 elections. Challenges in court could result in new legislative maps of the U.S. House of Representatives and states before the November elections.
In Wisconsin, a court ruled last month that current legislative plans are unconstitutional because many districts are not contiguous. The court ordered that either the Legislature approve new maps that Democratic Gov. Tony Evers is willing to sign into law, or the court move forward with adopting its own map.
The consultants were hired to analyze maps submitted to the court by the Legislature, Evers and others, and to report on their findings.
The consultants — who have the power to recommend changes to submitted maps or create their own — have had a hand in reshaping districts in other states.
Jonathan Cervas, of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, redrew New York's congressional and Senate maps after a court struck down the maps adopted by the Democratic-led Legislature. Bernard Grofman, of the University of California, Irvine, helped redraw Virginia's federal and state legislative districts after a bipartisan commission reached an impasse.
Conservative justices also objected to the hiring of the advisers, saying their selection, the legal authority to appoint them and their responsibilities all raise serious questions.
The maps of the parties to the lawsuit must be completed by January 12, with supporting arguments 10 days later. The consultants' reports must be ready no later than February 1, with the responses a week later. That means the court will likely release new maps sometime in late February or early March unless the Legislature acts first.
The state elections commission has said the maps must be completed by March 15 if the new districts are to be eligible for the November election.
Republican lawmakers last week asked the Wisconsin Supreme Court to stay and reconsider its 4-3 ruling throwing out maps drawn by the Republican Party. Thursday was the deadline for parties to the lawsuit to submit their arguments.
It is unlikely that the court will reverse its ruling. The liberal majority of the four justices voted in favor of ordering new maps, while the three conservative justices dissented.
The legislative election maps drawn by the Legislature in 2011 strengthened the Republican Party's majorities, which are now 64-35 in the General Assembly and 22-11 — a supermajority — in the Senate.