Wisconsin should switch to 'item' veto

Fred Wade in The Capital Times on the proposed state constitutional amendment to limit the governor's power of partial veto.

...since 1976, the Wisconsin Supreme Court has misinterpreted the governor's power to veto "part" of an appropriation bill and has permitted governors to use that power to create laws that the Legislature never approved through the deletion of selected words, digits and larger parts.

For 30 years, the Legislature has acquiesced in this judicial transfer of legislative power to the executive, with the exception of an ineffectual 1990 constitutional amendment that requires governors to refrain from vetoing "letters" in order to "create a new word."

Instead of a constitutional amendment that would confirm Wisconsin's repudiation of the core principle that Americans have a fundamental right "to make their own laws," Wisconsin should replace the partial veto power with a conventional "item" veto.

(via WisOpinion)