“Evers, Democrats side with thieves over employers” – state Sen. Van Wanggaard
Governor Tony Evers has vetoed Senate Bill 431, which would “allow employers to fire employees that steal from them.”
That’s according to a press release from state Sen. Van Wanggaard (R-Racine), who noted, “The bill was necessitated by a Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling, Cota v. Oconomowoc Area School District, 2025 WI 11, which stated that the school district had illegally fired two employees that had a municipal citation for stealing from the district.”
Read that Supreme Court case in full here.
“This is how crazy Democrats have gotten. Democrats are literally saying you can’t fire an employee if the police find that they’ve stolen from you!” said bill author Van Wanggaard. “Justice Protasiewicz urged the legislature to address this ‘unjust situation’ in her concurrence. So, we did.”
“First, every Democrat in the Legislature voted against allowing employers to fire employees who have stolen from them. Now, Governor Evers vetoed the bill. They are literally favoring criminals over victims. It’s nuts,” he wrote.
The state Senator gave this background:
In the Cota case, two brothers were accused “of stealing from their employer, the Oconomowoc School District. Giving the brothers the benefit of the doubt after an internal investigation was inconclusive, the school district asked police to investigate. The police then cited the Cotas for theft. After an assistant city attorney stated he thought he could obtain a conviction, the district fired the brothers. The brothers sued the district for discrimination under Wisconsin’s Fair Employment Act, which bars discrimination based on an arrest record.”
“The school district gave the brothers the benefit of the doubt, and got punished for it,” said Wanggaard. “The district would have been better off just firing the employees without investigating whether they stole. It makes no sense. God help Wisconsin if Democrats ever have all the power in Madison.”
Evers argued the bill would create “new barriers” to “accessing and retaining employment.”
You can read Evers’ veto message here.
