Republicans in the Wisconsin State Assembly approved a proposed amendment to the state’s constitution on Tuesday that would limit Gov. Tony Evers’s (D-WI) veto powers by prohibiting him from raising taxes or fees on his own.
The proposal, Assembly Joint Resolution 112, would restrict Evers and future Wisconsin governors from “exercising his or her partial veto power over an appropriation bill, from creating or increasing or authorizing the creation or increase of any tax or fee,” according to the proposal. Republican state Rep. Amanda Nedweski, who introduced the proposal, told reporters it would “rebalance power between the executive and legislature.”
Last year, Evers used his partial veto powers to alter the state’s budget by crossing out words and numbers to extend school funding through the year 2425, an additional 400 years than the two years the budget was originally slated for, Wisconsin Public Radio reported.
Decades before, then-Republican Gov. Tommy Thompson used his veto power to delete certain letters in words to piece together new words, changing the intent of the legislation known as the “Vanna White veto.”
“We very narrowly crafted this legislation to address the specific situations that we believe members of the public would find the most egregious, the ability for a single person to increase taxes or fees on the people of Wisconsin with the single stroke of a pen,” Nedweski said. “The people should not be subjected to political trickery that does not reflect their will as represented by their legislators.”
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While the proposal passed on a party-line vote, 64-34, for it to be approved, it will need to pass through the Senate before it reaches voters.
The Republican-controlled legislature has seen a historic number of vetoes for approved legislation, with Evers rejecting 32% of bills in the 2021-22 session, compared to other governors who veto an average of 3.7% sent to their desk for approval, according to the Legislative Reference Bureau.