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[WI]Fix guv's 'Frankenstein' flub
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| Contributor | Penguin |
| Last Edited | Penguin Jul 04, 2009 01:31pm |
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| Category | Editorial |
| Author | A Wisconsin State Journal editorial |
| Media | Newspaper - Madison Capital Times |
| News Date | Saturday, July 4, 2009 07:00:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | Old bad habits die hard.
How else to explain Gov. Jim Doyle's resurrection this week of a "Frankenstein" veto in blatant violation of the state constitution and will of Wisconsin voters?
Doyle is apparently so used to running roughshod over the Legislature with his veto pen that he let his fingers take over for his head before signing the state budget Monday.
Doyle crossed out words from three sentences of the state budget to create a new sentence in a section dealing with a study of state facilities for the mentally disabled.
This is precisely what Wisconsin voters overwhelmingly banned with a constitutional amendment last year. The practice, which expanded under several governors, became known as the "Frankenstein" veto because Doyle used the technique to stitch together unrelated bits and pieces of sentences across long passages of the state budget to unilaterally create law from scratch.
Wisconsin governors still have the power to strike words and numbers within a single sentence. But the monster veto that allowed Doyle to dream up and "veto" into law just about anything he wanted is supposed to be dead.
Doyle owned up immediately to his mistake. He blamed the short timeline he and his staff had for issuing vetoes. State leaders were racing to meet a July 1 deadline to collect $15 million in federal transportation aid. |
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