In the Declaration of Independence one of the major complaints that the founders raised against the king was that he restricted the representation and laws that the colonial Legislatures were providing and passing. He would do this in several ways sometime by calling for their meeting in unusual places, sometimes suspending the body altogether, or maybe just altering their entire form of government.

While I am not advocating that the people of Wisconsin start a revolution, we should all be concerned about the way some of our recent Governors have been silencing our state legislature. I am calling for the people of Wisconsin to remember the fear that the founders held for executive branches and the desire they had for true representation through an elected body.

Wisconsin is one of forty-three states that give their Governor the power of a line-item veto, the ability to veto individual words and phrases from legislation rather than entire bills. However, unlike many other states, Wisconsin’s Governor has the most powerful veto pen in the country, allowing him to even create new sentences by vetoing parts of several sentences. This expansive power is often called the “Frankenstein” veto. As the Frankenstein monster was pieced together from different parts, so the Governor’s veto power allows him to piece together different parts of a bill. This “piecing” essentially creates entirely new legislation, with the absence of proper discussion and consideration amongst a representative body.

This extensive veto power is particularly important now because the Legislature will soon be submitting the 2007 Budget for the Governor’s approval. His veto pen has the potential to change the will of our representatives. Some believe that the partial-veto gives the Governor more power to prevent pork spending, but back in 2005 Governor Doyle vetoed a section of the budget to rearrange funding into different departments and programs than had been voted on by the legislature. His “piecing,” if you will, sent education the $427 million that the legislature had wanted in the transportation budget.

Before you think that Doyle is the only Wisconsin governor to misuse this power, consider Governor Tommy Thompson. When Thompson was in office he was notorious for his line-item vetoes. Before his power was limited in 1990, he would write new laws one letter at a time, building all new words from the letters that were there.

In looking at the federal government, it is clear that the intent of the founders for the legislative branch was to write the laws, while the executive branch was to enforce the law. In fact, the founders believed that if any branch of government should be more powerful than the others it should be the Legislative branch because it was best able to represent the will of the people, and our government is a government of the people, by the people, for the people.

The founders of Wisconsin also understood the importance of a weak executive. In fact, they made the Governor so weak that the office was up for election every two years and didn’t even have the power of appointment as the President of the United States had. We were also very hesitant to give our Governor the partial veto. Discussion began in 1911, but it wasn’t until 1930 that our state gave its Governor the power of a line-item veto, and even then this power wasn’t used to create new law until more recently.

There are several problems with allowing the Governor of this state to re-write laws. First, the ratio of representation is much different. Every representative in the State Assembly represents a little over 54,000 people, while the Governor’s constituents are well over 5 million.

Secondly, there is no discussion, debate, or dispute when the Governor legislates because it is just him and a few advisors, contrary to the legislature, which must in order to pass a law go through hearings, committee votes, and floor votes, accompanied by much discussion, debate, and dispute.

The good news is there is currently a resolution in the state legislature to amend the Constitution on this issue. Assembly Joint Resolution 1 has already passed through the Assembly 70 to 25, clearly a bi-partisan vote with 20 Democrats joining all the Republicans. AJR 1 is currently in a Senate committee, where it has already had a public hearing. This bill deserves consideration from the Senate because, like the founders, the people of Wisconsin realize how valuable representation through the Legislature is. We echo the words of the authors of our state Constitution, that “the right of Representation in the Legislature, [is] a right inestimable to [the people] and formidable to tyrants only.”

For Wisconsin Family Council, I’m Julaine Appling reminding you the Prophet Hosea said, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.”