Wisconsin's partial veto
Wisconsin's governor has a power no other American governor has in this form: on bills that spend money, the governor can strike out parts, such as words, numbers or whole sections, and sign what's left into law. The edited version becomes the law, without going back to the Legislature.
How it works
- It applies only to appropriation bills, meaning bills that spend money, most importantly the state budget. Other bills must be signed or vetoed whole.
- The parts the governor strikes are gone unless the Legislature overrides that partial veto with a two-thirds vote of both chambers, the same bar as overriding a full veto.
- The governor files a veto message explaining each strike; it becomes part of the bill's official record. Bill pages on this site link the message wherever one exists.
- Because striking digits and words can change meaning, not just remove spending, governors of both parties have used it to create outcomes the Legislature never voted on, the source of most partial-veto controversy.
How it has been narrowed
- 1930 A constitutional amendment creates the power: appropriation bills “may be approved in whole or in part.”
- 1990 Voters ban the “Vanna White” veto: striking individual letters within words to spell new words.
- 2008 Voters ban the “Frankenstein” veto: stitching parts of two or more sentences into a new sentence.
- Still allowed Striking whole words, digits and punctuation. In the 2023 budget the governor struck digits and a dash from a school-funding provision written to end with the “2024–25” school year, leaving it to run “to 2425”, four extra centuries of annual revenue-limit increases. The Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld that veto in 2025.
See it in use
Vetoes lists every full veto, partial veto and override attempt by session, and the new laws pages note every act signed with a partial veto.