Mailbag: Rep. Brett Davis writes Re; Frankenstein Veto

Voters to Decide Fate of Frankenstein Veto on April 1st


On April 1st voters will have an opportunity to restore some balance between our branches of state government. The constitution gives the legislature the power to write laws and the governor the power to approve or reject those proposals. This separation of powers is a cornerstone principle of a successful democracy and it must be preserved. Governing is about checks and balances; no single elected official should have the ability to re-write laws without any oversight. That’s why I have long-supported a proposal to amend the constitution to prohibit any governor from combining parts of different sentences to create new sentences.

I am a cosponsor of this constitutional amendment and will voting "YES" to the following question:

"QUESTION 1: Partial veto. Shall section 10(1)(c) of article V of the constitution be amended to prohibit the governor, in exercising his or her partial veto authority, from creating a new sentence by combining parts of two or more sentences of the enrolled bill?"

This amendment will end the so-called Frankenstein Veto, which is used to stitch together words from various, unrelated sentences to craft entirely new policy that was never approved by the legislature. This constitutional amendment was first considered by the legislature in 2005 because of the excessive use of this power. The Frankenstein Veto was used 139 times to transfer $427 million from the segregated transportation fund to the general fund. This was done by crossing out 752 words and forming individual, unrelated words into a new sentence that authorized this transfer.

The Frankenstein Veto was also used in the most recent budget. Numbers in the levy limits section of the budget were creatively used so the 2% levy limit turned into a 3.86% increase, almost twice what was originally agreed to. This Frankenstein Veto meant that property taxes in Wisconsin increased by an additional $41.4 million. No matter what party is in charge, this is too much power for one branch of government to wield when handling Wisconsin's finances.

This amendment has wide-spread, bi-partisan support and I am hopeful that Wisconsin voters will join in its approval. This isn’t the first time the legislature and Wisconsin voters acted to restrict the veto powers. Years ago Governor Tommy Thompson vetoed individual letters to create new words and new laws the legislature never intended. The legislature and the public swiftly responded by amending our constitution to stop what had become known as the Vanna White Veto. We need to do the same thing here with the Frankenstein Veto. Hopefully this good government reform will pass on Tuesday.