Gov. Evers took the side of drug dealers who prey on homeless people during a Friday veto rampage.
He vetoed a Republican bill to establish a penalty enhancer for drug dealers who operate near homeless shelteers. The bill established a drug-free zone around homeless shelters.
In his veto message, Evers labeled the bill “archaic.” Instead, he argued for “corrections and justice reform.” His veto message also indicated that corrections, which he ultimately supervisors, is a mess unable to “accommodate” criminals. He argued the bill to punish drug dealers – including heroin and meth dealers – who prey on homeless people failed to “connect the dots.”
The bill was introduced by Senators Hutton, Nass, Jacque, Wimberger and Tomczyk; it was cosponsored by Representatives Donovan, Behnke, Dittrich, Gundrum, Knodl, Kreibich, Kurtz, Maxey, Moses, Mursau, Penterman, Tittl and Wichgers.
State Rep. Robyn Vining, a leftist Democrat running for state Senate, and socialist Rep. Francesca Hong, who is the Democrat frontrunner for Wisconsin governor, both voted to kill the bill. See the state senators who voted against the bill here.
Analysis by the Legislative Reference Bureau
Current law prohibits a person from delivering or distributing, or possessing with the intent to deliver or distribute, cocaine, cocaine base, fentanyl, a fentanyl analog, heroin, phencyclidine, lysergic acid diethylamide, psilocin, psilocybin, amphetamine, methamphetamine, methcathinone, or any form of tetrahydrocannabinols. The penalty for violating the prohibition varies by substance and amount, but current law increases the maximum term of imprisonment for violating the prohibition by five years if the violation takes place on or in, or within 1,000 feet of, a park, a jail, a multiunit public housing project, a public swimming pool, a youth or community center, a school or a school bus, or the premises of a treatment facility that provides alcohol and other drug abuse treatment. This bill adds that the maximum term of imprisonment may be increased by five years if the violation takes place on the premises of a homeless shelter or within 1,000 feet of the premises of a homeless shelter.
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