Wisconsin's Powerful Veto Authority 

Our government here in Madison is more divided than at any time in recent memory. As the Republican-controlled Legislature crafted their own budget, stripping many of Evers' provisions, many people are curious about what the Governor has in store. I can probably tell you - his partial veto authority.

Evers' has one of the most powerful partial veto pens in the country - yes, I said country. Before that power was granted, Wisconsin governor's had two options:

1.) Reject bills containing appropriations entirely 

OR 

2.) Sign them into law

But thanks to a good chunk of voters in 1930, a Wisconsin constitutional amendment got ratified which strengthened the governor's veto pen; they could now strike entire words and individual digits. As you can imagine the fun Governors had striking through provisions they didn't like, it got out of hand and voters set a limitation in 1990: single letters in a word are not to be touched. 

Write-in Vetoes 

Say, for example, Governor Evers is anti-road and believes we have some of the greatest transportation infrastructure in the country; he probably isn't going to be happy with $450 million going towards transportation funding. So, when the bill arrives on his desk, he's going to nix the $450 million to $75 million. This is a practice called "write-in vetoes" where Evers is allowed to replace dollar amounts with a lower figure. As he's allowed to lower dollar amounts, he can't combine two or more sentences to make a new one; a second constitutional amendment approved in 2008 after former Governor Jim Doyle created a new sentence which allowed him to transfer millions from fund to fund. But, Evers still has the right to nix words in a specific sentence which could result in altered language. 

Provisions Following a Partial Veto

Any provision that results from a partial veto must pertain to the original topic. Evers can't veto parts of the transportation budget to create a provision which provides more programs for the Department of Health Services. It must relate to the original topic and be a complete and workable law. Evers' partial veto can be overridden if two-thirds of the members from both the Legislature and the Senate overturn his language. However, this hasn't happened since 1985. 

Full Budget Veto 

Many people speculate Evers will veto the full budget since many of his provisions were completely stripped out. As it's not completely clear what his plan is, there's still a potential for a full budget veto. If that happens, we will continue to ride out former Governor Walkers' budget until the current budget is approved by Evers. 

Many people are eager to see what Evers does with the budget since a full budget has never been vetoed in the State of Wisconsin. If that occurs, the craziness Madison is experiencing will be kicked into overdrive. 

Until next time, 

Steve