state spending was transferred to what is known today as the Department of Administration. At the same time, what is now known as the Legislative Audit Bureau was created to perform audits of state agencies and assist the Legislature in their oversight of government performance. Today, the Secretary of State’s counterpart in Oregon remains the only secretary of state in the nation to serve as state auditor. Later, 1973 Wisconsin Act 334 transferred the Secretary of State's elections administration and ethics enforcement duties to two independent agencies now known as the Elections Commission and the Ethics Commission. Both commissions consist of six political appointees chosen by the Governor and state lawmakers. After this reorganization, the Secretary of State remained responsible for registering businesses, regulating lobbyists, and managing public records as the chief clerk of state government. Since 1989, most of the Secretary of State’s duties have gradually been reassigned to other state agencies or outright eliminated. 1989 Wisconsin Act 338 transferred lobbying regulation to the Ethics Board, now known as the Ethics Commission. 1991 Wisconsin Act 39 transferred publication of the session laws to the Legislative Reference Bureau. 1995 Wisconsin Act 27 transferred corporations, charities and video franchise regulation, and the Secretary of State’s duties concerning Uniform Commercial Code, including the recording of tax liens and financing statements, to the Department of Financial Institutions. 2011 Wisconsin Act 32 transferred the commissioning of notaries public and trademark registration to the Department of Financial Institutions. 2013 Wisconsin Act 5 eliminated the Secretary of State’s power to designate the date of publication for each Act of the Legislature, largely in response to Secretary of State Doug La Follette’s approach to the controversy surrounding 2011 Wisconsin Act 10. 2015 Wisconsin Act 55 transferred the Secretary of State’s municipal boundary review duties to the Department of Administration. The same act also eliminated the Secretary of State’s duty to publish slip laws and proposed constitutional amendments. As a result the office of Secretary of State in Wisconsin is institutionally the weakest directly elected member of the National Association of Secretaries of State, according to state-by-state analyses published by the Council of State Governments. Doug La Follette, the incumbent Secretary of State, has advocated for years to return business registration and lobbying regulation back to his office. See also List of secretaries of state of Wisconsin Wisconsin Board of Commissioners of Public Lands References