July 5, 2023

"Gov. Tony Evers, a former public school educator, used his broad partial veto authority this week to sign into law a new state budget that increases funding for public schools for the next four centuries."

"The surprise move will ensure districts' state-imposed limits on how much revenue they are allowed to raise will be increased by $325 per student each year until 2425...."


The veto power in this state is very intense: "Evers crafted the four-century school aid extension by striking a hyphen and a '20' from a reference to the 2024-25 school year." That is, "2024-25" became "2425."

I'm not seeing this term in the article, but traditionally, we've called this the "Frankenstein veto." The state constitution was amended in 2008 to restrict what used to be even crazier.

ADDED: The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has a new article: "Can he do that? Tony Evers followed a Wisconsin tradition when he increased school aid for 402 years." This one uses the term "Frankenstein veto":
At one time, governors could veto individual words to create new words — known as the Vanna White veto — or strike words from two or more sentences to make new sentences, known as the Frankenstein veto. Voters eliminated governors' ability to make such changes in 1990 and 2008, respectively.
So what's left, what Evers used, doesn't deserve the "Frankenstein" disparagement?

46 comments:

Aggie said...

That's not just a dirty trick (and they should investigate if it was set up by Democrats for precisely this), it's a great case for intentional malfeasance. Is that an impeachable offense there? It's some of the starkest Bad Faith politics I've seen in a while.

M said...

So eventually the entire GDP of the state will legally be required to go to teachers unions. What a dumbass.

RideSpaceMountain said...

My predictions for 2425:

> The United States of America will not exist. It will be replaced by several geographic nation-states composed from former geographic mega-regions (the "south", Cascadia, etc.) and what remains of the biologically contaminated country formerly known as 'Canada'.

> Transgenderism will be viewed the way we view 17th century witchcraft.

> Mnenomic digital transmography will replace all education - you will download knowledge instantaneously and have masterful and instantaneous recall. Schools? Psssssha.

> Human beings will no longer reproduce sexually. Sex will still happen, for fun, but that's it.

> If some portion of humanity doesn't live off-world, we likely don't exist anymore.

> If proof of extraterrestrials doesn't yet exist (recent announcements suggest this is already a win on my bingo card), we're probably certifiably alone in our quadrant of the galaxy.

> Wisconsin will be a radioactive wasteland (from their war with Minnesota) patrolled by roving bands of genetically modified warlords headquartered in Alpine, vying for control of the remaining Miller beer-making infrastructure, and surviving off cheesecurds while capturing and reselling as slaves every THOT in Milwaukee.

> Telepathic technology will exist that finally allows communication with cats and dogs confirming at long last that our dogs love us and our cats tolerate us even though we suck.

I have more, but I rate the above as having better than .75 probability of coming true.

RideSpaceMountain said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
tommyesq said...

That seems fair, democratic, and probably not a violation of the Wisconsin Constitution. Also likely completely unoverturnable when Evers gets voted out.

Michael K said...

So the next legislature cannot alter it ? Sounds funny.

tommyesq said...

Also, as I read it, this just raises the limit on what a district is allowed to raise, but does not mandate the increase, correct?

Mikey NTH said...

How quaint, four centuries. A true progressive would have it in perpetuity.

gilbar said...

People in Wisconsin are STUPID.. Don't believe me?? Look where they live

mikee said...

No law can prevent a future legislative action. Next year, make the annual bump per student $100,000.

MadisonMan said...

I'm sure that's very nice for now -- but I don't see how it will continue beyond the next state budget that will simply amend this.
So Evers does something to pay back the public schools, and looks good, and gets kudos for the action, and then the next governor removes it.

Ice Nine said...

Why not a millennium or two?

Roadkill711 said...

An absurd and hideous transmogrification of the bill. The Governor role is executive - not legislative - yet here he’s making law that directly contradicts the expressed intent of the legislature. Looks like the Wisconsin Constitution needs more tweaking vis-à-vis the line-item veto power.

Yancey Ward said...

In other words, you live in a Clown State.

Jersey Fled said...

Isn’t it cute how the Left defines success by how much money they spend.

Quaestor said...

...the Frankenstein veto.

Nothing could be more appropriate for that re-animated cadaver being kept in refrigerated storage at 99 Cambridge Road. The lab-coated hunchbacks who recharge the Governor are quick to point out that lightning bolts are carbon-neutral.

Educator turned governor Tony Evers... as if his first atrocity wasn't atrocious enough.

Duke Dan said...

How can you veto something into a bill that was not there to begin with?

And Democrats claim the other side is dangerous to democracy.

Dave Begley said...

Professor! What about the Rule against Perpetuities?

Back in the 60s, Albert “Duke” Schatz was asked about the Rule. His answer? “I know it has been abolished in Nebraska.” Confirmed. A long and distinguished career on the federal bench.

Rabel said...

"no Governor should be allowed to veto all but a couple dozen words and figures across reams of text in state budgets to unilaterally create law from scratch."

- Wisconsin State Journal, March 30, 2008.

walter said...

Tony got out of teaching asap to an admin position. He's a professional parasite.

Oso Negro said...

The graph of spending on "education" versus educational outcomes for the last 40 years neatly illustrates the lack of correlation between the two. Crazy sums are wasted trying to make all kids above average.

Rocco said...

Given the Chance, Evers to Tinker.

Mark said...

"they should investigate if it was set up by Democrats for precisely this"

You guys LOVED thus when Walker was the governor.

This was Scott Jensen and the Republicans doing. Don't try to pawn off responsibility for what you celebrated a decade ago.

Milo Minderbinder said...

Wisconsin is just so very, very lucky. How do the rest of us get a piece of this?

kjbe said...

Thanks, Tommy!

Yancey Ward said...

Zager and Evans didn't tell us what would happen in the year 2425.

Original Mike said...

Blogger gilbar said..."People in Wisconsin are STUPID.. Don't believe me?? Look where they live"

Aren't you from Illinois?

Jersey Fled said...

“Crazy sums are wasted trying to make all kids above average.”

Yet based on the trends, seems to somehow be making all kids below average.

Rocco said...

Yancey Ward said...
“Zager and Evans didn't tell us what would happen in the year 2425.”

Well, the world will have ended from global warming by then.

Curious George said...

"Rocco said...
Given the Chance, Evers to Tinker."

Nice.

meep said...

I understand he can do this bullshit "veto", but can the legislature override such "veto"s?

If not, what's the point in having a legislature?

Brian said...

WTAF? This is how you guys run your state?

Josephbleau said...

Doesn't the Wisconsin Constitution require that congress initiate and approve spending? this should be an unconstitutional delegation of the power of the purse to the executive. But the Supreme Court is famously a Democrat organization.

I thought I heard that Wisconsin had a veto proof majority in congress, I guess not.

gilbar said...

gilbar, who was born in iowa, was forced to move to illinois, And fled that state Just As Soon as he turned 18

Rusty said...

Welcome to Chicago, Wisconsin.

Darcy said...

Oh well done, Wisconsin voters.

Robert Cook said...

"Isn’t it cute how the Left defines success by how much money they spend."

That seems to be the metric rationalizing the ceaseless annual increases to an already obscenely over-funded War Department. More money, More Victory! (Except when it's not, as in Korea, Viet Nam, and Afghanistan...with more to come, no doubt.)

Our society's sickness is laid bare by the sanguine acceptance (or expansive support) by the people of the criminal wealth-transfer behind the War Department's ever-torrential (and annually growing) funding flood, (always characterized by the war-pimps in Congress as "not enough" each funding year), while they gripe bitterly over increasing funding to schools (or to writing off educational debt).

“…every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.”

--President Dwight Eisenhower, "Cross of Iron" speech (Obviously a commie.)

Robert Cook said...

My previous comment does not mean I support the sleight-of-hand by which Governor Evers achieved his state budget mandating spending increases at a fixed percent each year for the next four centuries. No matter how "good" or "beneficial" a given policy may be (or described), such trickery simply empowers tyrants and thieves who arrive at offices of power, and usurps the will of the people, (however benighted). I shudder to think of Gov. "Rant" DeSantis making use of such devices.

Alexander said...

If he had only removed the hyphen, he could have kept this going until 202425.

What a chump!

I dream of a world where Wisconsin is allowed to raise 26 million dollars+ per student, and the governor denied me.

Alexander said...

If he had just removed the hyphen, he could have kept is going until 202425 instead of a measly four centuries from now - what a chump!

Now, Wisconsin children in the distant future will be denied their $26 million each in funding because of this dummy.

Steve said...

"To me, the pictures say These clothes are really easy to wear."

You misspelled, "Fuck you normy moms!"

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

About $12,720 is the average per pupil spending now in WI, so the $325 figure represents about a 2.5% increase from baseline next year and the year after, 2.4% the year after, etc. Perhaps that will keep pace with inflation in Biden's America.

Overall that is an increase by $130,650 PER STUDENT over the time specified, or roughly an increase of $4.3 Million per classroom or $130 Million per year for a typical high school. WI now has about 600 public high schools across 400ish districts, so you only need to budget an extra $73 BILLION per year (starting in 2425) for high schools to meet Evers goal.

So $325 for each student adds up fast. Last year there were about 847,000 students in public school in WI. Next year the increase in per-pupil spending could be as high as $276M under this scheme, but don't worry about where the money comes from, because you need twice that the next year and twice that in year 4 and twice that in year 8 and pretty soon we are talking real money.

Rusty said...


"Isn’t it cute how the Left defines success by how much money they spend."
Money they steal.
You never voted for a property tax increase.

MadTownGuy said...

Duke Dan said...

"How can you veto something into a bill that was not there to begin with?

And Democrats claim the other side is dangerous to democracy.
"

Easy. Have the right people on the committee drafting the bill and make sure certain clauses are phrased exactly as needed. These things don't happen by accident.

Big Mike said...

Overall that is an increase by $130,650 PER STUDENT over the time specified, or roughly an increase of $4.3 Million per classroom or $130 Million per year for a typical high school.

And at the end, Wisconsin will still have the largest black-white achievement gap of the fifty states. That seems to be a matter of pride for Wisconsinites, considering how they elected as governor, then re-elected the man most responsible for it.

Greg the Class Traitor said...

The left wing Judicial thug doesn't show up iuntil Aug 1. Sounds like time for a quick appeal