Doyle vetoes prove amendment was a lie
Hey, wasn't that constitutional amendment we voted on April 1 supposed to do something about the governor's veto powers?
That's what the Wisconsin State Journal and its huckster allies in the Legislature tried to suggest.
But, as Gov. Jim Doyle's radical rewrite of the recent budget repair bill confirms, Wisconsin's chief executive retains the broadest veto powers in the nation.
Doyle reworked vast sections of the budget repair bill. He did not merely reject proposals. He changed priorities, altered goals and changed funding schemes.
In effect, he wrote a substantially new measure.
We actually agreed with much of what the governor did -- especially when it came to maintaining school aid payments that the Legislature tried to put off.
But the governor should exercise his authority in negotiation with the Legislature and, where necessary, with a tradition veto -- not through the back-door method of the partial veto.
The partial veto as it exists in Wisconsin is far too extensive. And, while it may have been used for good this year, it could be used for bad next year. Indeed, while we like some of what the governor did to the budget repair bill, conservatives will object -- as is their right.
And honest progressives and conservatives should agree that allowing the governor to effectively make law in this manner is inappropriate.
Real reform is needed.
Those who promoted the recently enacted constitutional amendment promised that reform.
But, either through ignorance and willful neglect, they failed.
The amendment is a lie.
The truth is that the governor of Wisconsin retains a radical -- and potentially abusive -- veto power.
File photo
Gov. Jim Doyle used his extensive partial veto power to rework a large amount of the budget repair bill.
