On Tuesday, April 1, voters in Wisconsin will have the power to bring about budget reform by banning the Frankenstein Veto. The proposed change to Wisconsin's constitution would limit the authority of the governor to unilaterally change legislation by combining parts of two or more sentences to create new sentences and new laws. I urge all of my fellow Wisconsin citizens to consider this language carefully and join me in approving this constitutional amendment.
For anyone unfamiliar with the practice of the Frankenstein Veto, here's how it works: the Wisconsin constitution allows governors to "veto in part" bills passed by the Legislature. Over the years, Wisconsin's governors have interpreted this to mean that they can veto individual words from legislation, stitching together the remaining words to create whole new sentences. Often, these new sentences can dramatically alter a bill and are now being used to spend money no legislator voted for.
It doesn't take a political science professor to see that this situation is ripe for abuse. For instance, in the 2005-06 state budget, Governor Doyle deleted most of the words from several pages of the budget, leaving just enough so he could stitch them together and give himself the authority to spend $427 million tax dollars. That's your tax money the governor unilaterally redirected without approval of the Legislature, and without any input from the public. This is simply not how democracy is supposed to work.
The partial veto was intended by Wisconsin's founders to act as a check on legislative power but it has now been perverted to the point that it has created a one-man government. Rather than simply approving or disapproving legislation, the governor is now acting as a one-man legislature - writing his own laws and signing them himself.
In 1990, the voters signaled their disgust with these abuses by trimming the governor's ability to veto individual letters from words and then stitch the remaining letters together to form whole new words - the so-called "Vanna White" veto.
If deleting individual letters is wrong, as the voters decided it was, then deleting individual words to create new sentences is wrong, too. Legislation should be considered as whole ideas, with the governor free to veto them as a whole if he decides they are wrongheaded. He simply shouldn't be allowed to rewrite the laws as he sees fit.
By approving the referendum, Wisconsin voters can end this practice and ensure that the will of the people is heard in all legislation that becomes law. Be sure to vote "Yes" on the referendum on April 1.Jeff Rogers 3/21/08
- Sen. Scott Fitzgerald is Senate Republican leader.
For anyone unfamiliar with the practice of the Frankenstein Veto, here's how it works: the Wisconsin constitution allows governors to "veto in part" bills passed by the Legislature. Over the years, Wisconsin's governors have interpreted this to mean that they can veto individual words from legislation, stitching together the remaining words to create whole new sentences. Often, these new sentences can dramatically alter a bill and are now being used to spend money no legislator voted for.
It doesn't take a political science professor to see that this situation is ripe for abuse. For instance, in the 2005-06 state budget, Governor Doyle deleted most of the words from several pages of the budget, leaving just enough so he could stitch them together and give himself the authority to spend $427 million tax dollars. That's your tax money the governor unilaterally redirected without approval of the Legislature, and without any input from the public. This is simply not how democracy is supposed to work.
The partial veto was intended by Wisconsin's founders to act as a check on legislative power but it has now been perverted to the point that it has created a one-man government. Rather than simply approving or disapproving legislation, the governor is now acting as a one-man legislature - writing his own laws and signing them himself.
In 1990, the voters signaled their disgust with these abuses by trimming the governor's ability to veto individual letters from words and then stitch the remaining letters together to form whole new words - the so-called "Vanna White" veto.
If deleting individual letters is wrong, as the voters decided it was, then deleting individual words to create new sentences is wrong, too. Legislation should be considered as whole ideas, with the governor free to veto them as a whole if he decides they are wrongheaded. He simply shouldn't be allowed to rewrite the laws as he sees fit.
By approving the referendum, Wisconsin voters can end this practice and ensure that the will of the people is heard in all legislation that becomes law. Be sure to vote "Yes" on the referendum on April 1.Jeff Rogers 3/21/08
- Sen. Scott Fitzgerald is Senate Republican leader.
