{"id":11964,"date":"2024-08-07T05:03:47","date_gmt":"2024-08-07T05:03:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=11964"},"modified":"2024-08-07T05:59:48","modified_gmt":"2024-08-07T05:59:48","slug":"former-wisconsin-governor-backs-spending-change-constitutional-amendments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=11964","title":{"rendered":"Former Wisconsin Governor Backs Spending Change Constitutional Amendments"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This post originally appeared at <a href=\"https:\/\/wisconsindailystar.com\/news\/former-wisconsin-governor-backs-spending-change-constitutional-amendments\/tcsquare\/2024\/08\/07\/\">https:\/\/wisconsindailystar.com\/news\/former-wisconsin-governor-backs-spending-change-constitutional-amendments\/tcsquare\/2024\/08\/07\/<\/a><\/p>\n<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<h5>by Benjamin Yount<\/h5>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>One of Wisconsin\u2019s former governors is supporting the push to give state lawmakers a say in how Wisconsin spends billions of dollars in certain federal money.<\/p>\n<p>Gov. Tommy Thompson said he supports the constitutional amendments that would give the legislature some authority to spend any future federal dollars.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Wisconsin\u2019s Constitution establishes the power to appropriate money to the legislature. Clearly, this was intentional. The United States Constitution provides the same authority to Congress. Why? Because our elected representatives are closest and most responsive to the voters. And they know and understand \u2013 they respond and advocate \u2013 for the unique needs of their local communities,\u201d Thompson (pictured above) said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>Thompson said government works best when it works together. There are two amendments on this month\u2019s ballot that would change the constitution and stop Wisconsin\u2019s governor\u2019s from making certain federal spending decisions on their own.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur framers envisioned and designed our system so that they, your elected representatives, would drive taxing and spending decisions and would be accountable to you. This is exactly what the ballot questions before you are asking,\u201d Thompson said. \u201cShould your representative \u2013 the person who goes door to door to hear and respond to the concerns of their constituents, the person working with and most responsive to local government officials and needs \u2013 have a role, as is the case for all other taxpayer spending, in directing immense amounts of federal aid. Or should all that spending be unaccountable to and uninformed by your representatives?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Republican lawmakers placed the two amendments on the August ballot after Gov. Tony Evers unilaterally spent more than $4 billion in COVID relief dollars. Some of the money went to things like minor league baseball teams across Wisconsin, and some of the money went groups like Planned Parenthood.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you share my determination for the value of collaboration and accountability, the answer to these questions is absolutely \u2018YES,\u2019\u201d Thompson said.<\/p>\n<p>\u2013 \u2013 \u2013<\/p>\n<p><em>Benjamin Yount is a contributor to<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecentersquare.com\/wisconsin\/article_3312f360-5403-11ef-b997-2367e5465e58.html\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener noreferrer\"> The Center Square.\u00a0<\/a><br \/>\n<\/em><em>Photo \u201cTommy Thompson\u201d by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/GOPBadgers\/photos\/t.100050602864279\/10155988859311700\/?type=3\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener noreferrer\">College Republicans of UW-Madison.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/wisconsindailystar.com\/news\/former-wisconsin-governor-backs-spending-change-constitutional-amendments\/tcsquare\/2024\/08\/07\/\">Former Wisconsin Governor Backs Spending Change Constitutional Amendments<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/wisconsindailystar.com\">The Wisconsin Daily Star<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This post originally appeared at https:\/\/wisconsindailystar.com\/news\/former-wisconsin-governor-backs-spending-change-constitutional-amendments\/tcsquare\/2024\/08\/07\/ by Benjamin Yount \u00a0 One of Wisconsin\u2019s former governors&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":3495,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wi-daily-star"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11964"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11964\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11965,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11964\/revisions\/11965"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}