Wednesday, July 01, 2009

Veto Fail

Oops.

So, voters, you thought you banned the “Frankenstein” veto last year?

Not so fast.

In what his office acknowledged was a mistake, Gov. Jim Doyle used the monstrous veto method on a minor policy item in the 2009-11 budget, violating the state constitution and creating a new law the Legislature didn’t intend.

Discovery of the veto flub Tuesday sent lawmakers and Doyle’s office scrambling to determine whether the veto language stands and what options are available to undo it.

“This is the first time we’ve ever encountered this,” said Sen. Mark Miller, D-Monona, co-chairman of the Legislature’s budget committee. “It’s a completely new issue. There’s no precedent.”

At issue is the scope, timing and committee makeup of a study commissioned by the Legislature on state facilities for the mentally retarded. Doyle’s veto changed the study language by striking words from three sentences to create a new sentence.

I would think that since the veto is illegal, it would just be considered invalid and revert to the original language.  Since Doyle has already signed the budget, I don’t see that he has any opportunity for a “do over.”  If it’s important enough for him, he could ask the legislature to pass a standalone bill that essentially recreates the intent of his veto.

(4) Comments
Posted by Owen at 1234 hrs
Politics + Politics - Wisconsin

  1. If it’s important enough for him, he could ask the legislature to pass a standalone bill

    Is not everything important enough?

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on July 01, 2009 at 1333 hrs


  2. If he knowingly broke the law, throw his ass in jail.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on July 01, 2009 at 1514 hrs


  3. From Wipolitics…

    Gov. Jim Doyle said today that his veto that combined parts of three sentences into one was the result of a short time frame to get the budget finished before the end of the year, and was simply missed by his budget staff and the Legislative Reference Bureau.

    “We had a day-and-a-half. People were working night and day in our budget office and this is all then checked over by the Legislative Reference Bureau and frankly they just missed it,” Doyle said.

    Doyle said the budget provision, which offered guidelines for a Dept. of Health Services study of facilities for the mentally retarded, was “not a major thing” and that the study would be done as approved in the Legislature’s final budget.

    “We’ll do the study, the matter won’t be vetoed and that will be the end of it,” Doyle said.

    I’m surprised they can just undo it, I would think it would have to be undone through a legal process.  Or maybe the veto stands in statute, but to avoid legal challenges he’s just directing the Department to carry out the provision as written by the legislature.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on July 01, 2009 at 1521 hrs


  4. There you go again, trying to impose logic on government. Silly man.

    Posted by elliot on July 01, 2009 at 1638 hrs


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