Governor
_____________
State of Wisconsin
Office of the Governor
April 15, 2022
The Honorable, the Senate:
hist160184I am vetoing Senate Bill 608 in its entirety. This bill allows students that participated in the Special Needs Scholarship program in the previous year to meet the prior year's attendance requirement to participate in the Wisconsin Parental Choice program or the Racine Parental Choice program. The bill additionally extends the window of time when students may transfer applications across choice programs and allows applications for the Milwaukee Parental Choice program or Racine Parental Choice program to transfer to the Wisconsin Parental Choice program if certain conditions are met. Finally, as drafted last year, the bill opened a window in November 2021 to allow applications submitted prior to April 2021 to transfer between choice programs.
I am vetoing this bill in its entirety because I object to complicating the movement of students among the state’s private choice programs while these programs continue to be funded in a disparate manner and have different requirements. Funding for parental choice programs remains convoluted and inconsistent across programs. Currently, new students enrolling in private schools in the Wisconsin Parental Choice program and Racine Parental Choice program are effectively entirely funded by their resident school district’s property taxes through a revenue limit adjustment, but students enrolling in private schools in the Milwaukee Parental Choice program are funded almost entirely by the state. Additionally, the bill continues untimely and obsolete provisions.
Respectfully submitted,
TONY EVERS
Governor
_____________
State of Wisconsin
Office of the Governor
April 15, 2022
The Honorable, the Senate:
hist160185I am vetoing Senate Bill 629 in its entirety. This bill would require the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation to implement a program to certify active or prospective residential real estate development sites as shovel-ready if such sites meet several criteria. The bill would further require local governments and state agencies to expedite permitting for these shovel-ready projects.
I am vetoing this bill in its entirety because I object to implementing a program that may detract from existing economic development efforts. While the bill is aimed at improving the availability of workforce housing in the state, it does not ensure that a shovel-ready site would address a particular or even generalized workforce housing need anywhere in the state. The proposed requirements for a minimum number of housing units and a maximum acreage per single-family housing unit, are insufficient to fill gaps in our workforce housing. In fact, the bill provides no means to require that a qualifying site be useful when considered on price or location.
Moreover, I object to requiring the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation to create a program without additional funding, which may force the corporation to shift resources and staffing away from established and tested economic development programs.
Respectfully submitted,
TONY EVERS
Governor
_____________
State of Wisconsin
Office of the Governor
April 15, 2022
The Honorable, the Senate:
hist160186I am vetoing Senate Bill 695 in its entirety. This bill eliminates the limit on the total number of charter schools (six) that may be authorized by the College of Menominee Nation and the Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe College (collectively, tribal colleges).
I am vetoing Senate Bill 695 in its entirety because I object to further complicating our school funding system. Currently, funding for students in a tribal college-authorized independent charter school is provided through state General Purpose Revenue and a corresponding state general aid reduction to the resident school district of a child attending such a school. Although the resident school district is allowed to count the student in its membership for revenue limit and state general aid purposes, school districts are typically not fully compensated for the aid reduction in the following year and must levy additional property taxes to replace the full aid reduction to avoid having to reduce their budget. This funding system results in inconsistent financial impacts on property taxes and overall public-school resources with varying relative costs per pupil and relative property value per pupil.
Further, tribal college authorizers are presently legally able to authorize 200 percent more independent charter schools than they operated in the 2021-22 school year without necessitating this legislation, rendering it unnecessary.
Respectfully submitted,
TONY EVERS
Governor
_____________
State of Wisconsin
Office of the Governor
April 15, 2022
The Honorable, the Senate:
hist160187I am vetoing Senate Bill 703 in its entirety. This bill would clarify the distinctions between an employee versus an independent contractor for motor vehicle operators, where the motor carrier deploys, implements, or uses motor carrier safety improvements.
I am vetoing this bill in its entirety because I object to Legislature bypassing the Worker's Compensation Advisory Council and the Unemployment Insurance Advisory Council's processes, which play a critical role in recommending changes to current law and that are supported by key stakeholders from both labor and management representatives in their respective industries.
I also object to further weakening the distinction between independent contractors and employees as defined under worker's compensation, unemployment insurance, and equal rights laws. Finally, this bill does not offer any additional protection from fraudulent misclassification of employees or independent contractors.
Respectfully submitted,
TONY EVERS
Governor
_____________
State of Wisconsin
Office of the Governor
April 15, 2022
The Honorable, the Senate:
hist160188I am vetoing Senate Bill 707 in its entirety. The bill would change the definition of veteran in state employment relations statutes to include a person who was discharged from the military under other than honorable conditions for having not received a COVID-19 vaccine.
I am vetoing this bill in its entirety because I object to expanding this definition to reward individuals that refused to follow an order. The U.S. Armed services make the determinations regarding what constitutes an honorable discharge and what does not. The military also directs countless requirements to ensure an equipped and prepared military, including numerous vaccine requirements. State law is currently clear—veteran status is extended under our state employment relations statutes to those honorably discharged from the U.S. Armed Services.
Respectfully submitted,
TONY EVERS
Governor
_____________
State of Wisconsin
Office of the Governor
April 15, 2022
The Honorable, the Senate:
hist160189I am vetoing Senate Bill 708 in its entirety. This bill would provide that if an employee is terminated for not receiving a COVID-19 vaccination or for failing to provide their vaccination status, any non-compete agreement signed by the employee is per se unreasonable, and thus illegal, void, and unenforceable.
I am vetoing this bill in its entirety because I object to the Legislature’s continued efforts to inject partisan politics and rhetoric into public health practices by preventing employers from making decisions that work for them, their customers, their workers, and their operations to help prevent and suppress the spread of COVID-19. As I have repeatedly indicated, we must be focused on following the science and the advice of public health experts, saving lives, and fighting this virus to keep Wisconsinites healthy and safe.
Respectfully submitted,
TONY EVERS
Governor
_____________
State of Wisconsin
Office of the Governor
April 15, 2022
The Honorable, the Senate:
hist160190I am vetoing Senate Bill 900 in its entirety. This bill would allow municipalities and private landowners to create title over formerly submerged lands in the Great Lakes waters – land which the state of Wisconsin currently holds in public trust for the people of Wisconsin – and certain commercial waterways. Under the bill, a person may submit an application to a municipality for a determination of the location of the proposed shoreline. The bill would require the Department of Natural Resources to adopt a determination by a municipality unless the department finds a municipality’s public interest determination lacked substantial evidence, or the property is not upland. The latter determination would not warrant a full rejection, but would rather require the Department to modify the proposed shoreline accordingly
I am vetoing this bill in its entirety because I object to impinging on the constitutional public trust doctrine under Article IX, Section 1 of the Wisconsin Constitution. This bill would open the door to the whittling away of public land by allowing the transfer of public lands to private entities for private use without a rigorous review process. While I appreciate the Legislature’s efforts to clarify the law in this area, I believe that this bill as drafted would violate the constitutional public trust doctrine in certain applications and, in its current form, could likely lead to litigation.
Respectfully submitted,
TONY EVERS
Governor
_____________
State of Wisconsin
Office of the Governor
April 15, 2022
The Honorable, the Senate:
hist160191I am vetoing Senate Bill 936 in its entirety. This bill would modify the way in which the Elections Commission processes sworn complaints, requiring the commissioners to determine how to proceed with the complaints, and would modify the procedures for the post-election audit.
The right to vote is fundamental to our democracy; it should not be subject to the whim of politicians who do not like the outcome of an election. Elected officials should not be able to abuse their power to cheat or control the outcomes of our elections or to prevent eligible voters from casting their ballots. This legislation is among many that have been sent to my desk during this legislative session, each passed under the guise of needing to reform our election system because elected officials in this state have enabled disinformation about our elections and election processes. I have and will object to each and every effort by this Legislature and its members to undermine our democracy, to erode confidence in our elections, and to demean and harass dedicated clerks, election administrators, and poll workers.
