Constitutional Amendment SJR 116- Partial Veto
The Democratic Party of Wisconsin and its county affiliates urge voters to mark "no" on three constitutional amendments placed on the November 3 ballot by Republican legislators. One proposed amendment concerns the Governor’s ability to exercise a partial veto.
Senate Joint Resolution 116 will appear on the ballot as follows: “Question (X): “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 or increasing or authorizing the creation or increase of any tax or fee?”
The Democratic Party opposes this amendment because it would weaken one of Wisconsin's strongest checks on legislative power. The partial veto has been used to preserve funding for public services. Restricting that authority could make it harder for future governors to preserve funding.
Public school funding should be of particular concern to voters. Schools receive the majority of their funding through state aid and property taxes. During the Great Recession, state budgets across the country faced significant deficits. Still, schools had to continue operating, so the Democratic-controlled Legislature in 2008 decoupled state education funding from inflation rates as a temporary fix. Since Republicans took control of the Legislature in 2011, Wisconsin's growth in per-student funding has frequently lagged behind national trends. In fact, the 2021-2023 state budget froze state per-student revenue limits. While per-student funding increased by roughly 4% nationally, Wisconsin's increase was only 0.8%.
With state funding lagging, to keep operating, school districts must pose referendum questions to voters. Operational referendums request approval to increase spending on educational materials such as programming, technology, and transportation. Capital referendums request approval for increased borrowing for construction projects. Wisconsin Watch reports that district leaders need referendums because state funding has not kept pace with inflation. 72 Wisconsin school districts had referendums on the ballot in April, and five school districts are suing the state government for failing to provide funding.
These funding challenges help explain why Governor Tony Evers' 2023 partial veto was so important. The budget bill authorized school districts to collect additional property taxes to fund a $325 per-student increase for two years. Using a partial veto, he extended that authorization to 400 years, or “in perpetuity”. He did not want the increase in per-student funding to expire after two years. The Republican-controlled Senate voted to override the veto, but the Assembly failed to do so, allowing the policy to remain in effect.
An earlier Wisconsin Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge to the veto. After the court's ideological balance shifted, the case returned to the court, which ruled 4-3 in Governor Evers' favor. Justice Karofsky wrote in the majority opinion, “We conclude that those 2023 partial vetoes do not violate the Constitution.” The majority opinion also noted that lawmakers have other ways to address concerns about the partial veto, including drafting future budget bills differently or pursuing a constitutional amendment. SJR 116 is the Legislature's attempt to do exactly that.
To understand why the court upheld the veto, it helps to understand Wisconsin's unique partial veto authority. Since appropriations bills often contain hundreds of provisions, Wisconsin voters amended the Constitution in 1930 to allow governors to approve funding bills in part rather than accepting or rejecting them in their entirety. The Constitution states, "Appropriation bills may be approved in whole or in part by the governor, and the part approved shall become law." Subsequent constitutional amendments prohibited governors from creating new words by striking individual letters or creating new sentences by combining parts of multiple sentences. Even with those restrictions, Wisconsin's partial veto remains one of the broadest veto powers in the nation.
Wisconsin voters have repeatedly chosen to preserve a strong partial veto while placing specific limits on its use. SJR 116 would impose another restriction on that authority and weaken one of the state's most important checks on legislative power. Democrats believe Wisconsin should preserve the tools available to protect public services. Vote "No" on SJR 116 on November 3.