A lawsuit filed by a conservatives group asks the state supreme court reverse budget vetoes made by Governor Tony Evers. Rick Esenberg leads the Wisconsin Institute on Law and Liberty. At a Wednesday press conference at the state Capitol in Madison, Esenberg called some of Evers’ partial vetoes to the Republican budget a “magician’s veto, ” and said the Democrat transformed appropriations in the budget “into something else through the clever use of a veto pen,”
The lawsuit, filed by WILL on behalf of four taxpayers, asks the court to block vetoes that put in place new taxes and regulations on vaping products; put taxpayer money toward electric vehicle charging stations; lifted restrictions on how $75 million in transportation funding could be spent; and required owners of heavier trucks to pay higher vehicle fees than owners of lighter trucks.
WILL SUES EVERS AT WISCONSIN SUPREME COURT OVER BUDGET VETOEShttps://t.co/s5VnAweCOR pic.twitter.com/7tAvzRoDVY
— WILL (@WILawLiberty) July 31, 2019
“It’s quite cleat that this was not was intended when the constitution was amended to permit this,” Esenberg said. The state Supreme Court has previously upheld use of the partial veto on the budget, and the practice has been widely used by previous governors of both parties..
“We’re getting used to this so it’s no surprise, but frankly folks, we have to move,” Evers said at an event in Watertown on Wednesday. “We had an election, we had a budget. We had a budget that was signed and deliberated by Republicans and Democrats.”