David Crowley may have given Republicans a political gift they didn’t expect. He will not vote for the November constitutional amendment that stops a governor from creating or increasing a tax or fee with a partial veto. He added that Republicans are trying to “rig the system” and, if elected, he will use that pen “to make sure that there’s no harm being placed or forced on Wisconsinites.”
Now this is some grade A political spin and concealing a position in nuanced language. Remove the spokesperson talking points and David Crowley believes the Governor should have the authority to raise your taxes.
This November, the ballot question is not complicated. “Shall Article V, Section 10 of the Wisconsin Constitution be amended to prohibit the governor, in exercising partial veto authority, from creating or increasing or authorizing the creation or increase of any tax or fee?”
A yes vote says the people’s elected representatives write fiscal policy. A no vote says one man with a pen can rewrite it after the Legislature goes home. Crowley is a hard no.
This amendment exists for one reason. In the 2023-25 budget, lawmakers approved a $325 per-pupil revenue limit increase for two school years, 2023-24 and 2024-25. Governor Tony Evers struck a hyphen and a “20.” Suddenly the end date was 2425. Four hundred years of potential property taxes, locked in by a veto and blessed by the liberal Wisconsin Supreme Court, 4-3 in 2025. Democrats in the Legislature then voted against legislation to simply real the 400 year veto. That was then vetoed by Governor Evers.
The governor is the executive. His job is to carry out the law, not write a four-century tax policy the Legislature never passed. That is a breach of the branches while Democrats spent a year chanting “No Kings” at Donald Trump. They have no problem with a king in Madison so long as it funds their priorities, no matter the cost.
Crowley has to take this position since Evers endorsed him. The same handlers who built the 400-year veto are now his handlers. Opposing the amendment would mean opposing the machine that just saved him from almost certain defeat.
This is not a giant story yet, but give it some time. Tom Tiffany is beginning to hit David Crowley from the fiscal angle, and there is plenty of fodder there to attack. This is an issue that really hits people’s pocket books with the whopper of a bill they get once a year. If Tiffany can relate the constitutional amendment with Crowley’s opposition while tying him to his history of property tax increases, you have a very potent attack.
