Congrats on taking the Frankenstein veto away from Doyle. It was the craziest law in the history of the 50 states:
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=734566
Voters drive stake into 'Frankenstein veto'
Governor may not cut and stitch words
By STEVEN WALTERS
By a wide margin, voters added language to the Wisconsin Constitution prohibiting governors from crossing out words from two or more sentences, then stitching together remaining words to create spending or to redirect tax funds in ways never approved by the Legislature.
Those cut-and-paste vetoes - used by governors of both parties over the past 20 years - prompted sponsors of the change approved Tuesday to say they wanted to end the "Frankenstein veto."
It was the first new limit on the veto authority of Wisconsin governors in 18 years. In 1990, voters passed the so-called Vanna White amendment to stop then-Gov. Tommy G. Thompson from splicing together individual letters to create new words, new spending and new programs.[LOL - DMA]
The chief sponsor of the latest change, Sen. Sheila Harsdorf (R-River Falls), praised voters for "enacting a change that will restore budget integrity."
"In just the past few years, the Frankenstein veto enabled (Gov. Jim Doyle) to create a $427 million hole in the state's transportation fund and nearly doubled the allowable property tax increase without any legislative approval," Harsdorf said in a statement.
"No governor should be able to enact new laws by cobbling together parts of sentences."
In 2005, Doyle used the veto powers outlawed Tuesday to turn a 272-word section of the Legislature's budget into a 20-word sentence that took $427 million from the transportation budget and gave it to public schools. Last year, another veto raised the maximum allowable property tax levy increase for local governments from 2% to 3.86%.
No marketing or advertising campaigns preceded the vote, so some voters were surprised to find the change on their ballots.
Doyle had shrugged off the proposal, saying he would abide by whatever voters decided.
Fred Wade, a Madison lawyer who specializes in constitutional issues, said he voted against the amendment Tuesday. He called it "nonsense" because it did not in any major way diminish the broad veto authority of Wisconsin governors.
Wade said the problem is that legislators have for decades not acted to meaningfully limit the broad "lawmaking powers" of governors.
Republican legislators say the referendum was delayed by Democrats, who control the state Senate, until the spring election to let Doyle use his veto powers on the budget the Legislature passed in October. |
