Capital Closeup: Extent of Wisconsin governors’ veto authority again in hands of voters

A unique power of Wisconsin governors is once again the subject of a proposed constitutional amendment, with the Legislature asking voters in November to prevent partial vetoes of spending bills that result in new or increased taxes and fees (SJR 116).

While most states give governors line-item veto authority, constitutional language in Wisconsin provides even broader powers — a partial veto of appropriations bills “considered to be one of the most extensive in the nation,” the Wisconsin Legislative Council notes. This authority dates back to a voter-approved amendment in 1930 seeking a check on the Legislature and its budget-making process. “Appropriation bills may be approved in whole or in part by the governor,” the text reads.

With this language, governors can strike individual letters, punctuation and numbers in the text of a budget bill (both “appropriation and non-appropriation” items, the council notes), and they eventually began using partial-veto authority to create entirely new words, meanings and appropriations. These actions came to be known as “Vanna White” and “Frankenstein” vetoes.

Wisconsin voters in 1990 approved an amendment barring governors from creating new words in appropriations bills by striking individual letters in the bill text. Eighteen years later, voters barred the gubernatorial practice of creating a new sentence by combining parts of two or more sentences.

In 2023, Gov. Tony Evers used his partial-veto power to extend authorization of a per-pupil increase in school funding from two years to several hundred. He did so by striking words that changed the phrase “2023-24 school year and the 2024-25 school year” to “2023-2425.” The Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld the governor’s actions. Legislative opponents have called it a “400-year property tax increase.”

Every Midwestern state except Indiana extends to the governor line-item veto authority on appropriations bills. Indiana also stands out for its lower threshold for veto overrides — a majority vote of elected members of the legislature, compared to most states that require two-thirds or three-fifths votes.

Capital Closeup is an ongoing series of CSG Midwest articles focusing on institutional issues in state governments and legislatures.