This is very frustrating, but easy to explain.
(The Center Square) – Democratic lawmakers and left-leaning organizations are celebrating voters’ rejection of two ballot proposals that would have empowered the legislature to have a say in certain spending decision.
But others are warning a Republican governor could change Democrats’ minds in the future.
[…]
The two referendums would have required the governor to include the state’s legislature in spending decisions regarding certain federal funding, which supporters argued would enhance fiscal responsibility. Opponents claimed the amendments were simply a Republican power grab.
This is frustrating because this is such a clear cut decision about good government. No single person should ever be able to spend billions of tax dollars at their sole discretion. It has been this way in Wisconsin forever, but it wasn’t a lot of money until Covid dumped tens of billions of dollars into the state’s lap. If you voted “no” for these amendments, then you don’t really believe in things like checks and balances or separation of powers.
Also, the referenda were necessarily written in a confusing, legalistic manner. This left people a bit confused if they didn’t read up ahead of time.
The liberals poured an inordinate amount of money into this election to encourage people to vote “no.” Why? Always. Follow. The. Money. Remember that the problem with the status quo is that the governor can spend that money wherever he or she wants. Evers has been pouring that money into favored groups in favored areas. The people receiving that money have a vested interest in keeping the gravy train flowing. Therefore, people and groups came out of the woodwork to get people to vote to keep Evers’ hand on the money spigot.
Finally, in a low turnout election, Dane County came through again. Statewide, turnout was about 26%. In Dane County, turnout was 44% for these questions. And Dane County voted 82% “no.” That’s 137,000ish “no” votes for referenda that lost statewide by 182,000 votes.
Milwaukee is heading on the same trend. Milwaukee County turnout was 32% (remember statewide was 26%) and voted 7 to 3 against the referenda. That’s another 105,000 “no” votes.
Meanwhile, Waukesha County didn’t do bad with turnout of 37% with a high-profile DA race on the ballot. But Waukesha is not nearly as Conservative as Dane and Milwaukee are Liberal. The referenda only received 53% “yes” votes in Waukesha County.
The demographics are such that Dane and Milwaukee Counties are uber-blue and are turning out disproportionately compared to the rest of the state. The WOW Counties are increasingly purple. This means that the liberals have an embedded electoral advantage being able to focus almost all of their effort into two counties while conservatives have to drive turnout in the other seventy.
One thing is certain… when we have a Republican governor again, I will encourage that governor to spend 100% of any federal money in Republican communities and with conservative causes. Fair is fair. If we are not going to have good government, at least we can attempt to make it equal in terms of distribution.
I thought this was a true disgrace. How do State constitutional referenda get put on a primary election ballot where only the hardcore partisans vote at all? I know, also easily explained, but it is still BS.
T, because they thought that they could win. Because there wasn’t much of a statewide D race and they probably thought that fewer D’s would turn out in Madison and Milwaukee. If it didn’t pass now, I don’t think this was gonna pass ANYTIME it would have been proposed. Baldwin currently has a 7% lead on Hovde. Obviously still months to go, but it isn’t looking good for him currently.
I am a fan of checks and balances, but our current legislature and governor relationship is awful. And I TRULY believe that there would not be a penny let thru if the legislature had any say in it. They would lock it up tight. If I had my way. I would want the legislature to have a small say in it. Something along the lines of 30% in order to provision federal.
It must feel crappy for them to know that the legislature is trusted LESS than the governor in our state.
Have you read up on that much? I have probably not read enough on it, but one of the referenda was specifically about taking away the ability of the Legislature to DELEGATE their allocation responsibilities. The Governor is not supposed to have that power. I don’t know how much he should have, but all funded projects are technically required to go through the Legislature, they own the purse strings precisely because one person should not be trusted. The Legislature is supposed to be doing it, but it is hard to take powers/rights back once lost, isn’t it? It is telling, imo, that the 2 referenda in April passed when the votes meant something and we had a normal turnout, but failed in the primary where no independent or people on the fence went in to vote. I don’t even think of primaries as voting days as I don’t cleave to either party that uses them. I did not know about them in August, but I knew about them in April. I would be interested to know who gets referenda on the voting ticket. If it is the legislature, which is Rep controlled, they made a very stupid mistake. If it is the WEC it was a savvy move by the largely Dem committee.
I honestly don’t understand why the Legislature cannot resume those responsibilities at any time, so I would appreciate it if someone could explain that at some point. The other one concerned that only election officials could handle the ballots. I don’t know why that would not be a bi-partisan slam dunk. Why is that so repulsive to liberals? I know why it is unbearable to Dems, but if you are interested in fair and unbiased elections why would you be in favor of just anyone handling the ballots? Are there no cheaters in your world? You admit there are liberal racists now, but not liberal cheaters?
In regards to the entire “Delegate” question. I think that is just wordplay. The legislature never had any authority over the federal funds in the first place, so they didn’t delegate crap.
Wisconsin state law on governor accepting federal funds
Chapter 16, Section 54 of the Wisconsin Statutes authorizes the governor to accept and allocate federal funds. The section reads:[8]
“ Whenever the United States government shall make available to this state funds for the education, the promotion of health, the relief of indigency, the promotion of agriculture or for any other purpose other than the administration of the tribal or any individual funds of Wisconsin Indians, the governor on behalf of the state is authorized to accept the funds so made available. In exercising the authority herein conferred, the governor may stipulate as a condition of the acceptance of the act of congress by this state such conditions as in the governor’s discretion may be necessary to safeguard the interests of this state.[5] ”
This is what they are trying to remove.
And FWIW. I didn’t realize this past week was a primary voting day. In my head I already thought that the sides were picked with Hovde & Baldwin earlier. I just knew it was voting day for other things.