The Sconi

On July 10, the Badger Institute launched a campaign recommending that voters approve the two-question proposal on Wisconsin ballots this August 13. The proposal aims to amend the constitution so that money sent to the state government by the federal government would be subject to the same legislative oversight and deliberation as all other state spending.

1. If voters approve two constitutional amendment questions in August, Wisconsin would join 34 other states whose governors and legislators share authority over major federal funding allocations. "Right now, Wisconsin’s governor has carte blanche to spend a lot of federal money without legislative involvement."

2. The amendments are bipartisan. They would be binding on every governor, regardless of party, and every Legislature.

3. "The public is unlikely to ever know how the state Department of Administration decided to allocate and spend nearly $4 billion from three federal pandemic emergency spending bills." Questioned by a sometimes frustrated Joint Legislative Audit Committee, DOA leaders acknowledged that many decisions were made in phone conversations and emails with Gov. Tony Evers and his staff that were not documented.

4. Due to that lack of transparency, the Legislature and the public were unaware of hundreds of millions of dollars in pandemic spending for broadband expansion in the state. When the Legislature found out, it stopped the governor from adding $750 million in state tax money for the same purpose.

5. Significant portions of pandemic money were spent on items unrelated to the pandemic. Hundreds of millions in “emergency” funding went into plugging deficits in annual budgets of various Wisconsin communities.

6. In a press release in November 2023, Evers highlighted projects funded with emergency pandemic funding: a $15 million ARPA grant for a sports and convention center in Janesville; $9.3 million for a new soccer stadium in Milwaukee’s Iron District; $7 million to expand the National Railroad Museum in Green Bay; and $5 million to create a Bronzeville Center for the Arts in Milwaukee.

7. The governor felt this spending was necessary because legislators removed projects he wanted during 2023-25 capital budget negotiations, according to his press release.

8. Money spent on pandemic-related items was also wasted. For instance, correctional and other public safety agencies in Wisconsin bought at least 55 disinfection robots at a cost exceeding $2.2 million.

9. The Wisconsin Department of Health Services spent $38.7 million to buy and maintain 1,542 ventilators at four emergency sites; no more than 308 ventilators were ever used, and six have never been accounted for.

10. Much of the pandemic money remains unspent as of April 2024—more than four years after Congress began its multitrillion-dollar pandemic spending spree—with Wisconsin still holding onto $1.1 billion allocated to the state.

11. The constitutional amendments will apply not only to future types of federal “emergency spending” but also grants tied to legislation such as funds dispersed through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

12. The amendments will ensure all federal funding is treated similarly to nearly $20 billion in federal funds approved by legislators and governors in every state budget.

13. The amendments would guarantee oversight and accountability.