Frankenstein Veto
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A Frankenstein veto occurs when an American state
governor A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...
selectively deletes words from a bill, stitching together the remainder (''à la''
Victor Frankenstein Victor Frankenstein is a fictional character who first appeared as the titular main protagonist of Mary Shelley's 1818 novel '' Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus''. He is an Italian-born Swiss scientist who, after studying chemical proces ...
) to form a new bill different from that passed by the
legislature A legislature (, ) is a deliberative assembly with the legal authority to make laws for a political entity such as a country, nation or city on behalf of the people therein. They are often contrasted with the executive and judicial power ...
. The practice arises from the power to
veto A veto is a legal power to unilaterally stop an official action. In the most typical case, a president (government title), president or monarch vetoes a bill (law), bill to stop it from becoming statutory law, law. In many countries, veto powe ...
individual words in a bill passed by the legislature rather than the bill '' in toto''. It became particularly prominent in
Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...
, where a 1930 amendment to the state constitution gave the governor the power to veto parts of a budget. This power was used by governors of both parties "to create spending or to redirect tax funds in ways never approved by the Legislature" by "string ngtogether pieces of separate sentences to create a single new sentence...."Steven Walters.
Doyle's veto of committee might have been unconstitutional
". ''Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel'', June 30, 2009.
Governor says so-called Frankenstein veto slip-up fixable
.
WKOW WKOW (channel 27) is a television station in Madison, Wisconsin, United States, affiliated with American Broadcasting Company, ABC and owned by Allen Media Group. The station's studios are located on Tokay Boulevard on Madison's west side, and i ...
-Madison, Wisconsin.
For instance, in 2005 Governor Jim Doyle used selective deletion to transform "a 272-word section of the Legislature's budget into a 20-word sentence that took $427 million from the transportation budget and gave it to public schools." The same technique was used the following year to raise the levy limits on local governments from 2% to 3.86%.Patrick Marley, Steven Walters, and Stacy Forster.
Governor gets last word(s): Expansive veto authority enables Doyle to raise limit on local property tax levies
". ''Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel'', October 27, 2007.
In 2008, the state constitution was amended to place certain restrictions on the Frankenstein veto. With those changes, the governor of Wisconsin still has far greater veto powers than any other governor in the United States of America. The ''
Wisconsin State Journal The ''Wisconsin State Journal'' is a daily newspaper published in Madison, Wisconsin by Lee Enterprises. The newspaper, the second largest in Wisconsin, is primarily distributed in a 19 county region in south-central Wisconsin. As of Septembe ...
'', in response, stated that "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." ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' called the practice "a legislative twist on the game of Mad Libs."


Example

Governor Jim Doyle's 2005 veto removed the following struck text from a transportation bill: These removals reduced the text to read:


Curtailing

Wisconsin had previously eliminated an even more extreme version—dubbed the "
Vanna White Vanna Marie White (née Rosich; born February 18, 1957) is an American television personality and game-show hostess, best known as the co-host of the game show '' Wheel of Fortune'', a position she has held since 1982. She began her career as a ...
veto"—in 1990 "when they prohibited state leaders from deleting individual alphabetic letters and numerical characters in a bill to change the intent of the legislation"Daniel Vock.
Govs enjoy quirky veto power
". ''Stateline'', April 24, 2007.
in response to its controversial use by then-Governor
Tommy Thompson Tommy George Thompson (born November 19, 1941) is an American politician who served as the 19th United States secretary of Health and Human Services from 2001 to 2005 in the Presidency of George W. Bush, cabinet of President of the United State ...
.Steve Schultze.
Walker won't play Frankenstein
". ''Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel'', November 6, 2007. An illustration of the outer limits of the Vanna White veto can be see
here
An amendment to the
Wisconsin Constitution The Constitution of the State of Wisconsin is the governing document of the U.S. State of Wisconsin. It establishes the structure and function of state government, describes the state boundaries, and declares the rights of state citizens. The ...
passed in 2008 sought to curb the practice even further, but its prohibition on "crossing out words and numbers to create a new sentence from two or more sentences" left intact the Governor's power to "cross out words within a sentence to change its meaning, remove individual digits to create new numbers or delete entire sentences from paragraphs." This loophole has allowed the practice to continue, albeit less frequently. One prominent example occurred in 2023 when Governor
Tony Evers Anthony Steven Evers ( ; born November 5, 1951) is an American politician and educator serving since 2019 as the 46th governor of Wisconsin. A member of the Democratic Party, he served from 2009 to 2019 as Wisconsin's 26th superintendent of p ...
exercised his veto power to extend revenue increases for Wisconsin public schools until 2425; he did this by changing the line "for the 2023–2024 school year and the 2024–2025 school year" into "for 2023–2425" ("for the 2023–2024 school year and the 2024–2025 school year").{{cite news , last1=Beck , first1=Molly , last2=Opoien , first2=Jessie , url=https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2023/07/05/tony-evers-extends-increases-for-public-schools-in-perpetuity/70381898007/ , title=Tony Evers uses veto powers to extend annual increases for public schools for the next four centuries , work=
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel The ''Milwaukee Journal Sentinel'' is a daily morning broadsheet printed in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where it is the primary newspaper and also the largest newspaper in the state of Wisconsin, where it is widely read. It was purchased by the G ...
, date=July 5, 2023 , access-date=July 5, 2023 , archive-date=July 5, 2023 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230705193506/https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2023/07/05/tony-evers-extends-increases-for-public-schools-in-perpetuity/70381898007/ , url-status=live


See also

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Governor of Wisconsin The governor of Wisconsin is the head of government of Wisconsin and the commander-in-chief of the state's Wisconsin Army National Guard, army and Wisconsin Air National Guard, air forces. The governor has a duty to enforce state laws, and the ...
*
Line item veto The line-item veto, also called the partial veto, is a special form of veto power that authorizes a chief executive to reject particular provisions of a bill enacted by a legislature without vetoing the entire bill. Many countries have different ...
*
Erasure poetry Erasure poetry, or blackout poetry, is a form of found poetry or found object art created by erasing words from an existing text in prose or Poetry, verse and framing the result on the page as a poem. The results can be allowed to stand ''in situ' ...


References

Governor of Wisconsin Wisconsin law Veto