Wisconsin governor’s 400-year veto angers opponents in state with long history of creative cuts

MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin’s governor attempted to lock in a school funding increase for the next 400 years by issuing a partial veto that angered his Republican critics and marks the latest creative use of the unique gubernatorial powers in the state. Jim Doyle, “but he’s got ’em.” Wisconsin governors have the most expansive partial veto power in the country because, unlike in other states, they can strike nearly any part of a budget bill. “Well, he did it.” Wisconsin’s partial veto is uniquely powerful because it allows the governor to change the intent of the Legislature, just as Evers did, said Kristoffer Shields, director of the Center on the American Governor at Rutgers University. “Taxpayers need to remember this when getting their tax bills this December.” But Doyle, the former Democratic governor who issued nearly 400 partial vetoes over eight years, praised Evers for effectively restoring an automatic increase in school spending authority that had been in place starting in the 1990s.