An ease of the freeze - for Republicans

Last week's Wispolitics Report noted that Bob Delaporte has returned to work in the Capitol. Good news for him right? But isn't there a hiring freeze in place on the Assembly side of the building?

A memo dated June 7th from John Gard told Assembly Members that since the state budget reduced the amount of money available for the Assembly, he was instituting a hiring freeze until the end of the year to save money. Any exceptions to that would have to be approved by the speaker on a individual basis.

Many of us suspected that last little bit translated into Republicans can hire anyone they want and Democrats can't hire anyone. And I guess we were correct on that one. Unless Rep. Huebsch's constituents have a lot of real press emergencies pending, I'm at a loss to understand why he needed this staff person right away but everyone else has to wait until January.

New hires for the next session usually start in January after inauguration. If the Republicans had followed that rule, the freeze would be over too. But that would require some sort of fiscal restraint wouldn't it?