Wednesday, January 11, 2006
Ninety-Seventh Regular Session
The Chief Clerk makes the following entries under the above date.
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The Chief Clerk makes the following entries dated Thursday, January 5, 2006.
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The Chief Clerk records:
Senate Bill 58
Senate Bill 70
Senate Bill 138
Senate Bill 171
Senate Bill 402
Presented to the Governor on January 5, 2006.
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The Chief Clerk makes the following entries dated Friday, January 6, 2006.
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Read first time and referred:
Senate Bill 498
Relating to: excavation notices and installation of certain water and sewer laterals.
By
Senators
Leibham and Kanavas; cosponsored by Representatives Nass, LeMahieu, Hines, Hahn, Pettis, Ainsworth and Montgomery.
To committee on Natural Resources and Transportation.
Senate Bill 499
Relating to: recording and filing transportation project plats.
By
Senators
Grothman, Roessler, Lassa and Kedzie; cosponsored by Representatives Hahn, Krawczyk, Hines, F. Lasee, Albers, Gunderson, Strachota, Ott and Van Roy.
To committee on Natural Resources and Transportation.
Senate Bill 500
Relating to: the applicability of rules concerning the storage of bulk fertilizer and bulk pesticides.
By
Senator
Olsen
; cosponsored by Representatives Hines, Towns and Gronemus.
To committee on Natural Resources and Transportation.
Senate Bill 501
Relating to: damages for frivolous claims.
By
Senators
Grothman, Stepp, Roessler, Darling, Reynolds and Lazich; cosponsored by Representatives Gundrum, Travis, Gard, Kestell, Hahn, LeMahieu, Van Roy, Hundertmark, Musser, Jensen, Pettis, Nischke, Gottlieb, Vos, Gunderson, Ballweg, Krawczyk, Owens, Bies and McCormick.
To committee on Judiciary, Corrections and Privacy.
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State of Wisconsin
Office of the Governor
January 6, 2006
The Honorable, The Senate:
I am vetoing Senate Bill 58. The bill makes sweeping changes to Wisconsin's product liability law and places a larger burden on consumers to prove the defective condition of products.
I am committed to investing in all of our industries and fostering a business climate in Wisconsin that promotes growth. However, growing Wisconsin's economy should not be at the expense of injured consumers' and workers' ability to hold wrongdoers accountable. For example, the bill grants automatic immunity for any product that has been in the marketplace for 15 years. This arbitrary time limit is inherently unfair and puts consumers and workers at a disadvantage, given that a defect in a product may not manifest until years after the product is placed in the stream of commerce.
In addition, the bill creates a presumption that a manufactured product is not defective if it complies with the relevant state and federal laws, at the time of sale. Unfortunately, history is full of examples – like the Ford Pinto – where manufacturers complied with existing government regulations, all the while concealing information about a product that threatened public health and safety. Producers who hide information from government regulators and the public shouldn't have an advantage against more responsible companies.
The bill also provides a liability shield for distributors and sellers when they receive products in a sealed container. By shielding these two groups from liability, it takes away the incentive of the industry as a whole to produce, sell, and market the safest products possible. Moreover, there is no definition of sealed container in the legislation, making this a dangerously vague exception.
This bill simply goes too far. Protecting products like the Ford Pinto doesn't help consumers or the economy; it simply puts the public at risk. Companies should be held fully accountable if they make a product that hurts people – especially if they knowingly do so and conceal information from government regulators.
Growing Wisconsin's economy and protecting the safety of consumers in Wisconsin are both priorities of my Administration. Any legislation must fairly balance the interests of consumers with those of manufacturers, distributors, and sellers.
Sincerely,
JIM DOYLE
Governor
Office of the Governor
January 6, 2006
The Honorable, The Senate:
I am vetoing Senate Bill 70. This bill would change the state standard for admissibility of lay and expert witness testimony in our courts and administrative hearings. Under current law, juries weigh the reliability and credibility of witness testimony while challenges are made through cross-examination. This bill would require judges to act as "gatekeepers" of information and the arbiters of what is allowable expert testimony based on what they perceive to be sound scientific method.
I am vetoing this bill for many of the same reasons that I vetoed the similar, Senate Bill 49, from last session. As I previously stated, I am aware of no evidence that Wisconsin's existing rules governing the admissibility of lay and expert witness testimony have produced unfair results and require revision. Wisconsin judges are already empowered under current law to reject evidence because it is superfluous, prejudicial or inherently improbable.
Moreover, SB 70 would hinder the efforts of state prosecutors in criminal prosecutions. Under this bill, state prosecutors would face an additional obstacle in introducing key expert testimony that relies on disciplines such as psychiatry, DNA testing, fingerprinting or forensics.
In short, this bill is a solution in search of a problem, and it would only make the job of prosecutors in Wisconsin harder. Judges and juries can already reject evidence if it is superfluous or improbable, so there is simply no reason to add additional procedural hurdles to the system. I trust juries in this state to properly weigh the credibility and reliability of evidence when making their decisions, and I must therefore veto this bill.
Sincerely,
JIM DOYLE
Governor
