The Wisconsin State Legislature approved a constitutional amendment related to the governor's veto powers for the Nov. 3, 2026, statewide general election ballot. Legislators passed the amendment on Feb. 19, 2026.
Senate Joint Resolution 116
Introduced as Senate Joint Resolution 116 (SJR 116) on Dec. 30, 2025, the constitutional amendment would prohibit the governor from using their partial veto to create or increase any tax or fee.
The bill was first passed in the Wisconsin State Senate on Jan. 21, 2026, by a vote of 18-15. In the Wisconsin State Assembly, SJR 116 passed by a 54-41 vote, with four members not voting, on Feb. 19, 2026. The amendment was passed along party lines, with all Republicans voting in favor and all Democrats either opposing it or abstaining.
State Sen. Chris Kapenga (R-33), who voted in favor of SJR 116, said, "Wisconsin Governors currently enjoy one of the most powerful partial-veto pens in the country," and that, "if adopted, this amendment would rebalance power between the executive branch and the legislative branch and further restrict the executive from rewriting laws passed by representatives of the people."
State Sen. Chris Larson (D-07), who opposed the amendment, stated that the amendment would "make it harder for any future governor to right the wrongs of any legislature that fails to provide sufficient revenues to meet our shared priorities — education or otherwise."
What is a partial veto?
In 1930, voters in Wisconsin approved Question 1, thereby granting the governor the power to issue partial vetoes on appropriation bills. More specifically, the language of the amendment said that "Appropriation bills may be approved in whole or in part by the governor, and the part approved shall become law, and the part objected to shall be returned in the same manner as provided for other bills."
The first change to this provision was adopted in 1990, when Wisconsin voters approved an amendment, also titled Question 1, that prohibited the governor from using the partial veto to form new words by removing individual letters from words in appropriation bills.
Most recently, the partial veto provision was altered in 2008. That year, voters approved another measure titled Question 1, which prohibited the governor from creating a new sentence by combining parts of two or more sentences in an appropriation bill.
How the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled on partial veto cases in recent years
On April 18, 2025, the Wisconsin Supreme Court decided on Lemieux v. Evers, upholding Gov. Tony Evers' (D) partial veto extending a two-year school funding provision to 402 years.
Justice Jill Karofsky, writing the court's majority opinion, stated that the partial veto followed for deletion-veto principles established in prior case law. Justice Brian Hagedorn dissented, writing, "This is not a policy that was presented to the governor for approval."
Karofsky, citing a ruling from 1988 which held that corrections to the governor's partial veto powers are made "not by this court, but by the people, either at the ballot box or by constitutional amendment," wrote, "Even when that change is considerable... the governor’s constitutionally-vested, quasi-legislative role defeats any separation of powers-type argument." Hagedorn wrote, "While [Question 1 of 1930] certainly conferred significant power on the governor, nothing from the debates at the time, early cases, or language suggests this kind of veto was a grant of magical, unilateral power to make law."
The legislature is considering an additional limit on the partial veto, which could appear on the ballot in 2027. That proposal would limit that power by allowing the governor to veto only entire sections of an appropriations bill, and only if those sections could function as complete and workable laws on their own.
Measures in Wisconsin on the ballot in 2026
Wisconsin voters will also decide on two other ballot measures—Assembly Joint Resolution 10 (AJR 10) and Assembly Joint Resolution 102 (AJR 102)—on Nov. 3, 2026, regarding the emergency closure of places of worship and preferential treatment by government entities.
AJR 10 would prohibit state and local governments from ordering the closure of places of worship during a declared state of emergency, including a public health emergency. AJR 102 would prohibit governmental entities, including agencies, school districts, and public universities, from discriminating against, or granting preferential treatment to, a person or group on the basis of "race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in public employment, public education, public contracting, or public administration."
Measures related to the governor's veto powers
Since 2023, voters in one state—Louisiana—have decided a ballot measure related to the governor's veto powers. In 2023, voters in Louisiana approved Amendment 1, which provided that the governor must act within 10 days after a bill is delivered while the legislature is in the session in which the bill was passed.
For the 2026 ballot, voters in New Mexico will decide on a constitutional amendment related to the governor's veto powers Nov. 3. The amendment, House Joint Resolution 2 (HJR 2), would require bills to become law if the governor neither signs nor vetoes them within three days during the legislative session, or within 20 days for bills presented during the last three days of the legislative session.
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