Wisconsin Is Now an Authoritarian State – The American Spectator | USA News and PoliticsThe American Spectator

The Wisconsin Supreme Court race that saw Dane County Judge Susan Crawford defeat Waukesha Judge Brad Schimel was a reality check to Republicans nationwide and saw Wisconsin liberals continue to maintain a majority left-leaning State Supreme Court for the near future. The ramifications for Wisconsinites are significant, as they face coercion in a whimsical taxation ploy with no end.

It is unfortunate for badger voters that the Wisconsin state Constitution has an oddity that partially grants the governor the power to veto legislation, also known as the “Vana White veto.” This veto power allows the governor to change a bill by altering words, letters, and punctuation, regardless of the legislature’s original intent.

During the summer of 2023, the legislature in Wisconsin passed a bill to finance education spending by an additional $325 per student through the school years of 2023-2025. Wisconsin Republicans prevented Governor Evers from enacting more of his agenda. Still, he pulled out his veto pen and kept the education spending increase but erased the 20 and dash so the Wisconsin schools would receive the additional funding every year until 2425. Over time, this is a drastic annual tax hike for the next four centuries that is codified into law.

The State Court ruled in a 4-3 decision, with all four liberal high court justices voting in the majority, that Governor Tony Evers’s (D-WI) “veto” on the education funding bill was legal. Evers is not the first Wisconsin governor, Republican or Democrat, to exploit this mechanism. However, Evers’s abuse of power is at an appalling authoritarian level and disdains the legislative body.

Of course, the progressives on Wisconsin’s highest court saw nothing wrong with the governor’s constitutionally expanded power grab. “We are acutely aware that a 400-year modification is both significant and attention-grabbing,” the majority ruling penned by Justice Jill Karofsky. “However, our constitution does not limit the governor’s partial veto power based on how much or how little the partial vetoes change policy, even when that change is considerable.”

As recently as 2017, former Governor Scott Walker used his power to change a state budget bill to alter a stop-to-school referendum to raise taxes for green energy plans into a 1000-year postponement. The key difference is that Walker used his veto to restrict what the government could do. In contrast, Evers used it to circumvent the legislature and expand government authority to a shockingly despotic new level.

In his dissent, Justice Brian Hagedorn slammed the court’s decision as “silliness.” His opinion remarked that “Instead of reading what the bills say, and construing the partial veto power accordingly, this court treats bills presented to the governor as simply a set of alphanumeric ingredients from which the governor can cook up whatever he pleases.” He also concludes that it undermines the legislative process and allows the governor to create new laws.

Justice Hagedorn went on to say that the Wisconsin Supreme Court rejected a “reasonable reading” of the state’s constitution and changed the meaning of the word “veto.” The decree made it simple for any future state governor to submit and execute “law all on his own.” Of course, liberals have the gall to call the GOP a “threat to democracy.”

It should be no surprise that Governor Evers expressed no regrets about his controversial power grab veto in an exclusive interview with WTMJ. Unfortunately, Badger state residents must comply with an imperious new taxation structure. Residents could face increased property taxes to compensate for the shortfall in state aid. The Associated Press states, “The increased spending authority permitted under Evers’s veto allows schools to get the money from property taxes if there’s not enough state aid.”

What exactly are Wisconsin taxpayers funding? According to the Nation’s Report Card, less than one-third of fourth graders across the state cannot read properly. Milwaukee, the largest city and school district in Wisconsin, has just 9 percent of fourth graders and 15 percent of eighth graders meeting the standards for reading proficiency. Wisconsin families are not getting the bang for their buck with education spending.

Even though Republicans control the legislature in Wisconsin, they are still looking for ways around the ruling, although outside of lawsuits, it looks bleak. The only hope may be for voters to eliminate the partial veto by amending the state constitution. Of course, Wisconsin Republicans have to drill that campaign message home. As voters have discovered, elections have consequences, even on the state level.

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