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Legislators this week (September 30, 2005) beat back several politically motivated attempts by legislative majority leaders to override six of Governor Jim Doyle’s July budget vetoes. Legislative leadership threatened to reduce school funding if the vetoes were overridden.
To override a governor’s veto at least two thirds of the members of each house must vote in favor of overriding. Last week, the Assembly voted 64-32 to overturn the governor’s veto of a 1.4% Medical Assistance reimbursement rate increase for nursing homes. Override opponents charged that the veto should have been upheld after Representative Pedro Colon, an override opponent, inadvertently missed the vote even though he was in the Assembly parlor when it took place. Override supporters refused to reconsider the vote.
On September 27, the State Senate fell two votes short of overriding the governor’s nursing home Medical Assistance veto. The Assembly then sustained five more of the governor’s vetoes, including vetoes concerning pharmacy reimbursement rates and fee dispensing rates, outpatient hospital rates, an adoption expenses credit freeze, and a bariatric surgery prohibition.
WEAC President Stan Johnson said the legislative majority’s veto override attempts were politically motivated and not intended to achieve real public policy goals. For example, Johnson cited a legislative proposal from Senator Robert Jauch and Representative Gary Sherman – Senate Bill 343 – that would achieve the 1.4% increase in the state’s reimbursements for nursing homes without jeopardizing public school funding. Doyle has publicly supported the bill.
“The legislative majority leaders do not care about senior citizens any more than those who opposed this override do. They simply are interested in scoring a veto override victory because they think doing so could weaken Governor Doyle politically,” Johnson said. “They are playing political games and pitting senior citizens and schoolchildren against each other in the process.”
When asked where the money would come from to fund the nursing home Medical Assistance increase if the governor’s veto was overridden, Assembly Majority Leader Mike Huebsch suggested to a reporter from the Capital Times on September 14 that K-12 funding is a likely source.
“We had put $455 million into schools. The governor increased that, but it is not in schools yet,” Huebsch said.
Johnson said Huebsch is presenting a false and unacceptable choice.
“By sustaining the governor’s veto, the Legislature can now keep the promise to fund two-thirds of the local cost of education, protect taxpayers and provide an increase for nursing homes by passing Senate Bill 343,” Johnson said.
Resource page on 2005-07 state budget
Posted September 30, 2005