Veto pen too powerful in Wisconsin

It has been called by some scholars “unusual, even quirky.” That is the description by one circuit judge of the veto powers of Wisconsin’s governor. Only Wisconsin’s governor has the ability to partially veto appropriation bills. Most state’s governors have item veto authority, allowing the governor to strike or reduce appropriations. By contrast, the partial veto power allows Wisconsin’s governors to strike individual words, numbers, or even marks of punctuation. As we have seen, this allows Wisconsin’s chief executive to completely change the meaning of laws passed by the legislature. That authority was granted in 1930, and for decades the power was rarely used, much less abused. That has changed. Hundreds of words and numbers have been stricken by Wisconsin governors to create entirely new meanings to the laws, or spending plans. That is despite the fact that Wisconsin voters, twice since 1990, have approved constitutional amendments limiting the veto power of the Wisconsin governor. As a result, a Wisconsin governor can still veto an entire sentence, or a portion of a sentence, but can no longer delete parts of two sentences to create an entirely new sentence. This power, unique to Wisconsin, seems counter our democracy. Wisconsin lawmakers should work to further to limit the veto power of Wisconsin governors so that a law or budget truly reflects the wishes of the lawmakers who created them.