In perhaps one of the most baller editing moves of all time, Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers wielded the state’s quirky partial veto power to delete two digits and a hyphen—sneakily conjuring 400 years of education funding increases from a stingy Republican budget. To borrow a phrase Evers himself likes to use, holy mackerel, folks!
Wisconsin governors have the unusual power to partially veto appropriation bills, also called a line-item veto. Instead of rejecting an entire budget, this means the governor can cross out portions while still signing the bill as a whole into law. Past Republican governors have used this power like a hacksaw to cut programs or funding, but Democrats have gotten less use out of it since it’s pretty difficult to add anything back simply by crossing something out. Not impossible, though, as it turns out.
Republicans in the ultra-gerrymandered state legislature threw out the budget originally proposed by Evers, stripping away more than 500 appropriations for popular programs such as child care, mental health, and school safety. So when their version hit his desk, he got creative to make more out of less. In a line that would have increased funding for school districts by $325 per pupil in each of the next two fiscal years, Evers deleted two digits and a hyphen to turn “2024-25” into “2425.” With those tiny tweaks, school districts in the state will now have a reliable source of funding for the next four centuries. Even the Twitter ghost of Richard Nixon is impressed.
Some might be surprised the mild-mannered former educator had this Machiavellian move in him. But let’s be real, who is more experienced at making do with whatever scraps Republican lawmakers give them than public school teachers? And they’re super used to taking a red pen to someone else’s shoddy work. All folksy appearances aside, Evers was clearly made for this moment.
The governor also used his super-powered veto pen to make more than 50 other changes, including eliminating a huge tax cut for the top income tiers, a handout to the wealthy that would have saved the state’s 11 richest residents an average of $1.8 million each per year, according to the Evers administration. He also reduced funding for the Republican National Convention set to take place next year in Milwaukee, in a move that seems delightfully petty.
If you’re wondering how this is an acceptable way for the democratic process to work, well … it’s cute if you think Wisconsin might still be a functioning democracy. Extreme gerrymandering means that Republicans can hold near supermajorities in both houses of the state legislature even if they get less than half the statewide votes. They’ve used their lopsided power to make the state even less democratic, such as taking powers away from the governor’s office as soon as a Democrat was elected and refusing to consider the governor’s nominees.
In that context, perhaps it seems more reasonable for a very popular two-term governor to use whatever small loopholes the law has given him to carry out some part of what voters elected him to do. It would definitely be better if government worked the way it was supposed to, but in the meantime, if he can pull off a few MacGyver solutions like this, then more power to him.
(via Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; featured image: screengrab, Tony for Wisconsin)
