$200,000 for fair maps? Drop in the bucket vs what GOPs made us pay.

Not surprisingly, there will be a cost to have two PoliSci professors advise the Wisconsin Supreme Court on how Wisconsin's legislative maps can be unrigged.

Two consultants hired to analyze new legislative boundary lines in Wisconsin after the state's Supreme Court tossed the current Republican-drawn maps will be paid up to $100,000 each in taxpayer money under terms of their contracts made public Thursday.https://t.co/U466TNQJDv

— Scott Bauer (@sbauerAP) January 4, 2024

Two consultants hired to analyze new legislative boundary lines in Wisconsin after the state’s Supreme Court tossed out the current Republican-drawn maps will be paid up to $100,000 each under terms of their contracts made public Thursday.

Each consultant will be paid an hourly rate of $450, up to $100,000 total, but the state director of courts has the authority to exceed the maximum amount if she determines it is necessary, according to the contracts. The costs will be paid by the parties in the case, which include private attorneys and those who are funded by taxpayers.

Which led a needy moron to give this whining response.

What a waste of money, thank you corrupt Supreme Court AKA shadow Legislature https://t.co/z45ejBR8QU

— Wisconsin Right Now (@wisconsin_now) January 4, 2024

Lots wrong with the statement (especially when any Republican complains about decisions on the Wisconsin Supreme Court being "partisan"). But "waste of money" may be the dumbest part of that take.

The $200,000 to unrig the maps pales in comparison to what the GOP is making Wisconsin taxpayers shell out for as they try to keep their gerrymander in place.

Republican legislative leaders are poised to spend more than $1.8 million in taxpayer dollars on private attorneys to defend Wisconsin’s GOP-drawn legislative maps, according to contracts with three law firms....

Under three contracts signed last month by Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, and Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu, R-Oostburg, Wisconsin taxpayers will be on the hook for more than $1.8 million in fees to outside attorneys who have been hired to defend the state’s existing maps — considered some of the most gerrymandered districts in the nation.

A contract with law firm Lehotsky Keller Cohn states total fees will not exceed $870,000, while a second, with Consovoy McCarthy and Lawfair, states that legal fees through Aug. 15, 2024, will not exceed $965,000.

A third contract, with Bell Giftos St. John, charges $450 per hour for attorneys’ time and $150 per hour for work by paralegals. The contract does not include a pay limit.

The contracts, first reported by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, also require the Legislature to cover additional out-of-pocket costs.

And let's not forget an even bigger GOP-related taxpayer-funded handout to right-wing lawyers.

Tab to taxpayers so far from Gableman probe:
$434k in legal fees awarded @weareoversight (two awards on appeal)
$528k for cost of probe
$1.5 million for private attorneys to represent Vos, Assembly, Gableman in various suits

Total: Nearly $2.5 million and counting https://t.co/PQtJRT1g0I

— JR Ross (@jrrosswrites) March 1, 2023

Or this.

The GOP gerrymandering of Wisconsin maps cost taxpayers more than $1.6 million by October 2012. $1 million in GOP legal fees to help defend the maps in court, $431,000 to Michael Best & Friedrich for drawing the maps and $185,500 to Voces following its successful legal challenge.

— Terry Jepson (@terry_jepson) January 4, 2024

You look at that, and spending $200,000 for these two professors to help decide fair maps seems like a bargain. Maybe we should have that (plus public hearings) as the permanent way we do our redistricting, instead of having elected hacks try to help themselves, eh?