Monday, July 14, 2025
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Monday, July 14, 2025

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Wisconsin August Referendum: Vote YES to Restore Your Own Voice

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This is a guest opinion column by Barbara Dittrich.

On the Wisconsin August referendum times 2: With billions of your hard-earned dollars on the line, shouldn’t you have some idea where they are being spent? Shouldn’t you have a voice in your state government that can influence how those dollars are allocated? VOTE YES to give yourself a voice.

It’s election season, and in addition to being out campaigning for my own reelection to the Wisconsin State Assembly, I am out educating voters to say “YES” to their own best interests on the August 13th primary ballot.

Two Wisconsin August referendum ballot questions appear on the second side of your ballot that are key to restoring our state’s constitutional foundations as originally intended. With absentee ballots already in the hands of those who choose to vote by mail, I have also had several people reach out to me asking what the questions mean and how they should vote.

I urge you to restore your own voice and best interests by voting “Yes” to both Wisconsin August referendum ballot questions on your August 13th ballot.

Question 1 reads, “Delegation of appropriation power. Shall section 35 (1) of Article IV of
the Constitution be created to provide that the legislature may not delegate its sole
power to determine how moneys shall be appropriated?” Shall section 35 (1) of article
IV of the constitution be created to provide that the legislature may not delegate its sole
power to determine how moneys shall be appropriated?”

Question 2 reads, “Allocation of federal money. Shall section 35 (2) of Article IV of the
constitution be created to prohibit the governor from allocating any federal moneys to the
governor accepts on behalf of the state without the approval of the legislature by joint
resolution or as provided by legislative rule?”

I am encouraging every voter I communicate with to vote “YES” on each of these two
questions.

Why?

Let’s look back to the genesis of these questions on your ballot. When the COVID-19 nightmare came to visit us all, the federal government, first under President Trump, then under President Biden, sent enormous amounts of money to the states for “COVID Relief,” intended to mitigate the spread of the illness and prop up an economy devastated by widespread shut down of schools and businesses. While some of those funds were restricted in how they could be spent, much of the money was not.

That was not necessarily a problem for most states, but it became a big problem for
Wisconsin.

Back in the 1930’s, Wisconsin’s legislature relinquished its constitutional power of the purse when it came to federal funds directed to our state. This put our governor in a position to have his slush fund to spend billions of YOUR federal tax dollars any way he wished when it came to those COVID relief funds that were unrestricted. Today’s legislature quickly noted this problem and tried to restore our state’s spending and allocating authority to where they belong. Unfortunately, today’s governor didn’t want that level of accountability.

Now lest I sound too partisan, note that the non-partisan legislative audit bureau found
in 2022 that our governor was not being very transparent with the way he was spending
those dollars. (See Decisions About the Use of Supplemental Federal Funds Report 22-
23 | December 2022.)

With billions of your hard-earned dollars on the line, shouldn’t you have some idea where they are being spent? Shouldn’t you have a voice in your state government that can influence how those dollars are allocated?

After hearing frustrations from citizens and even special interests, in addition to my own beliefs on how good governance should work, my answer is a resounding yes! During the COVID debacle of Tony Evers’ spending spree, we saw millions of your dollars being directed to his buddies at Planned Parenthood, which I will note, were never shut down as your local churches and schools were.

Look at the ridiculous amount of money spent on a field hospital at State Fair Park that never housed patients. Even people in the telecommunications industry were privately telling me that Evers did not properly direct monies meant to help with rural broadband to the areas where they were most needed. That is bound to happen when a governor doesn’t have good input from the legislature, who should be making those decisions.

Our government is not intended to be a monarchy. It’s time to correct this decision our predecessors made at a different point in history when speedy travel and the internet didn’t exist. I urge you to restore your own voice and best interests by voting “Yes” to both ballot questions on your August 13th ballot.

 

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“In Washington County our budget cycle starts right now, and it’s not due until November. We will propose our budget goals to the County Board in the next couple of months. We will share ‘This is what we’re thinking.’ It gives them months of time to think those through, give us feedback, and [have] that kind of dialogue,” Schoemann explained in an interview on News Talk 1130 WISN.

Schoemann said that is far better than the approach Evers is taking again this year.

“That’s not how government is supposed to work,” Schoemann said. “It’s not the vision of the governor. It’s not the vision of any one person.”

Evers and the Republican legislative leaders who will write the budget have been involved in on-again, off-again budget talks this month. On Thursday, the governor’s office said those talks were off once again because of gridlock in the Senate.

“Ultimately, the Senate needs to decide whether they were elected to govern and get things done or not,” Evers spokesperson Britt Cudaback said in a post on X.

Schoemann’s criticism of Evers is nothing new. He has long been a critic of the governor and has turned that criticism up since launching his campaign for governor.

But the recent criticism was also aimed at other Republicans who may jump into the 20206 governor’s race later this year.

“Nobody else in this race on the Republican side, being rumored to this point, has the executive leadership of skills and history to be able to show ‘This is how I’ve done it before, and here’s how we’ll do it Madison,’” Schoemann said. “The results in Washington County speak for themselves.”

Northwoods Congressman Tom Tiffany is also rumored to be looking to get into the Republican race. Before he went to Congress, Tiffany was a Republican lawmaker in Madison.

Businessman and veteran Bill Berrien is also on the short list of likely GOP candidates for 2026.

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