Wisconsin Invoices the Exercise of Rights

by Wendy McElroy
Dec. 19, 2011

Despite a proclaimed opposition to new taxes, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has advanced a policy that amounts to a new and draconian tax. People will have to pay the state for the “privilege” of free speech and assembly. To exercise those rights in or outside state facilities will entail permits at least seventy-two hours in advance and potentially prohibitive fees. The policy took effect on December 8 and is expected to be completely phased in by December 16.

State permission for various types of protest has long been required in the form of permits; in recent years, some locales have further limited freedom of speech by restricting it to “designated areas.” But Walker's measure goes a leap or so beyond the standard government policies on protests.

The new policy defines a “protest group” as a gathering of four or more people within a state facility and one hundred or more outside a state building; both gatherings require permits for “all activity and displays.”

The most controversial aspect of Walker's bill, however, allows authorities to charge groups for police security and for the cost of clean up. The security fee would be $50 per hour per officer at the capitol building, the state seat of government. Elsewhere, it would depend on the costs billed by police to the state; presumably, pepper spray would be extra.

Liability insurance (or a bond) and an advance payment to the police could be demanded as part of the permit-application process. Freedom of speech and assembly is now expensive in Wisconsin.

The Wisconsin State Capitol building is specifically named in the bill. The capitol has been besieged by protesters since February, due to Walker's championing a law to limit collective bargaining for the state's public unions. If the protesters are required to pay $50 an hour per security officer, then those demonstrations are likely to diminish.

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