2/11/2007

Harsdorf v. Frankenstein

Sen. Sheila Harsdorf, R-River Falls, along with Sen. Tim Carpenter, D-Milwaukee, and others, are sponsoring a resolution to ban governors from creating new sentences by vetoing parts of two or more sentences in spending bills.

Harsdorf calls this practice the "Frankenstein" veto. That's because in the last budget, Doyle stitched together a few dozen words and figures among more than 800 words to create a monstrous law. It resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in higher spending that the Legislature never approved.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

You'd think Sheila wouldn't need a history lesson about how the line item veto came into being because she was there at it's inception and use by Tommy Thompson.
I guess it was OK because he was a Republican who would erase budget numbers and substitute what he felt was appropriate in Budget legislation.
The line item veto was a stupid idea when Thompson and the Republicans created it. Why change now, because a Democrat is using the power that they gave to Governors. What hypocricy!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

The debate over the so-called Frankenstein veto is not a new one; lawmakers have considered limiting it since the early 1990s. In 1992, Wisconsin voters approved a constitutional amendment to prohibit the "Vanna White veto," after former Republican Gov. Tommy G. Thompson created new words by arranging letters from other words.

Even with this change, Wisconsin's governor still would have the broadest veto authority of any other governor in the nation, said Sen. Sheila Harsdorf (R-River Falls). Governors still could write in lower spending amounts, and they still would retain partial veto authority, she said.

"No governor should be able to write laws that haven't passed the Legislature," Harsdorf said.

Anonymous said...

Shelia first showed up in Madison in 1988...

In 1988, with tremendous support from family and friends, Sheila ran and won the seat of the 30th Assembly District in the Wisconsin Legislature. She won a total of five consecutive elections, and finished her last term as a state representative in 1998.

During Sheila’s service to the Wisconsin Assembly, she was on the Agriculture Committee, the Legislative Advisory Committee of the Minnesota-Wisconsin Boundary Area Commission, the Legislative Council Special Committee on Land Use, the Assembly Committees on Natural Resources and Veterans and Military Affairs and as the ranking Republican on Colleges and Universities. In 1995, Sheila was appointed to the prestigious Joint Finance Committee, a 16-member committee responsible for drafting the state’s biennial budget.

In 1998 Sheila took a brief reprieve to work at home on the family farm. Two years later, Sheila entered the 10th State Senate race against an eight-year incumbent. She was successful in the campaign, and now serves to represent all of St. Croix County and parts of Burnett, Dunn, Pierce, and Polk Counties.

Sheila is chair of the Senate Committee on Higher Education and Tourism.

In her hometown of River Falls, Sheila remains and active member
of the Luther Memorial Church. She is a past member of the Kinnickinnic River Land Trust Board and the Wisconsin Conservation Corps Board. Additionally, she is former President of Wisconsin FFA Foundation Sponsor’s Board.
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Tommy Thompson served as Wisconsin Gov. from 1987-2001. Thompson started his political career in the 1966 as a state representative.
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Shelia follow her brother Jim into the political arena:

Jim Harsdorf entered public service by representing the 30th District in the Wisconsin Assembly from 1977 to 1980. In 1980 he was elected to the State Senate to represent the 10th District and served for eight years. He was the Senate's minority leader for two years. After leaving the Legislature he later served on the Board of the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection from 1986 to 1996, including three years of service as its chair. He was appointed Secretary by Gov. Scott McCallum in March 2001.
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My guess is there would be some political connections among the Harsdorfs and Thompson...