Nelson, candidate in 8th, says he's donated raises

Democratic congressional candidate Tom Nelson says he's being attacked unfairly for taking a pay raise as a lawmaker amid state budget woes, detailing for the first time that the raise in question went to charity.

Ads by Nelson's GOP opponent, Marine veteran Mike Gallagher, have criticized the pay increase for Nelson, but the former legislator and Outagamie County executive say he's given all his raises to charity or the county since 2009.

To help prove it, Nelson provided copies of tax returns as well as county records. His campaign manager said Nelson has tried to avoid talking about these donations but is doing so now to push back against critics.

"Since the recession, (Nelson) has given his salary increases to charity or back to the county, not to get a headline but because it was the right thing to do," Ethan Susseles said in an interview.

In recent weeks, Gallagher has run pointed ads saying that Nelson took a salary increase at the same time he was voting to raise taxes.

"During the financial crisis, with the American dream collapsing ... Nelson pocketed a taxpayer-funded raise," one Gallagher television spot charges.

The $2,530 pay raise was given to all 132 lawmakers starting in January 2009, a time when the state was facing a roughly $6 billion two-year budget shortfall. The pay boost to what was then an annual salary of $49,943 had been approved during the prior legislative session by a committee that didn't include Nelson.

During their term, Wisconsin lawmakers can't change their own salary to raise it or lower it. They must accept their full salary and pay whatever taxes on it they owe.

Madison Wiberg, a spokeswoman for Gallagher, defended the ads criticizing Nelson, saying that some lawmakers who received the pay raise in 2009 gave it back to the state rather than charity.

"Tom Nelson took a taxpayer-funded pay raise when he could've rejected it like 10 of his colleagues did. He subsequently raised taxes on Wisconsin taxpayers. What he did with his higher pay is up to him, but he did raise taxes and take a pay hike," Wiberg said.

Nelson provided state tax returns for 2008, 2009 and 2010, showing that he reported more than doubling his charitable giving in 2009, increasing it from $2,400 in 2008 to $5,103. That increase was larger than his 2009 raise and Nelson followed that up in 2010 with an additional $278 increase in his giving to $5,381.

Nelson said he directed the extra donations to groups such as his local church but didn't keep all his receipts from those years.

Lawmakers in early 2009 were under considerable pressure to forgo the pay raises, which received criticism because of the austerity in the broader state budget and economy.

Susseles said Nelson didn't make any statements at the time that he was giving the raise to charity.

A January 2009 story in the Wisconsin State Journal reported that eight lawmakers were returning their raises to the state and a dozen more were giving their raises to charity. That story listed Nelson as among the majority of lawmakers who had not responded to inquiries from the newspaper about what they were doing with the raise.

That left it unclear when Nelson first decided to give the raise to charity.

Nelson continued to give away his wage increases, however, even after they were no longer a hot-button issue.

As Outagamie County executive, Nelson has given back $11,371 in wage increases to taxpayers after taking office in 2011 at a salary of $94,836, according to county records provided by his campaign.

Susseles said that, now that the full story about Nelson's pay raises has been released, Gallagher ought to stop using ads and mail pieces criticizing Nelson for taking pay increases from taxpayers.

"The facts speak for themselves and knowing that Tom never kept his pay raises since the recession we think the Gallagher campaign is lying to the voters," he said.