An assembly committee at the capitol discusses the so-called Frankenstein veto . State Senator Sheila Harsdorf wants to prevent any governor in our state from creating entirely new sentences simply by crossing out and combining two or more other sentences. The River Falls Republican proposed the legislation after learning that Governor Jim Doyle crossed out a bunch of words and numbers in order to transfer $427-million from the state Transportation fund. “Our intent here is to say … to allow a governor to partial veto legislation, but not to go so far as to create new laws that have not passed the legislature.”
Harsdorf says people need to recognize the importance of balancing the power between the executive branch and the legislative branch of government. She says the resolution has already passed the full legislature in the last session, but it still has to pass through one more session before going to the people for a vote. And that could be more difficult since the balance of power has changed in the senate, and the GOP majority is slimmer in the Assembly. “Well my hope is that people will see this not as a partisan issue, but really 'what authority ought our governor have?' Even with this change, our governor will continue to have the broadest veto authority of any governor in the nation.”
Harsdorf testified at a public hearing Thursday morning for the committee on Elections and Constitutional Law.