(The Center Square) – The politicking over Wisconsin’s proposed constitutional amendments continues up to the last minute.
Both supporters of the plans that would give the Wisconsin legislature some say in how some federal money is spent, and opponents of the amendments made their cases Monday.
“It’s rather unfortunate that this is devolved into a political fight, because it really is about you know setting the rules on how our government operates,” Kyle Koenen, policy director for the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty told The Center Square. “From a good government perspective, it comes down to that: Do you think that one person should have control over billions of dollars of federal money coming in. Or do you want that decision making to be the closest to the people, with their elected representatives?”
The two constitutional amendments would limit Gov. Tony Evers’ unilateral power to spend certain federal dollars. He could still veto any spending decision the legislature makes, but if the amendments pass, he could not make spending decisions solely on his own.
Republican lawmakers said the amendments are necessary after Evers spent more than $4 billion in COVID money as he saw fit.
That included money for community theaters, minor league baseball teams, and a couple of projects that Koenen said lawmakers initially said ‘no’ to.
“There’s a couple capital projects…one was for a $9.3 million subsidy for a professional soccer stadium in Milwaukee that has yet to be built. And the other one was for a $15 million convention center and hockey arena in Janesville,” Koenen explained. “Both for projects that were presented to the legislature through the building commission process, we’re not adopted, and then he went forward with [them] anyways.”
Democrats counter the effort to limit the governor’s spending authority is nothing more than political revenge.
“Tomorrow, Republicans are trying to convince you to change the constitution so that they have control of those [federal] funds instead of the governor. Their refusal to accept fed $ for Medicaid and High-speed rail alone have cost us billions. Why would we give them even more power?” Democratic Congressman John Larson asked on soial media.
Voters will make their decisions on the two questions Tuesday.
