Gov. Tony Evers announced Monday plans to include a measure in the 2025-27 budget that would allow Wisconsinites to enact statutory and constitutional changes through majority vote at the ballot box without the Legislature’s approval.
Currently, only the Legislature can place proposed referendums and constitutional amendments on statewide ballots. Evers’ proposal would put decisions on issues such as abortion and marijuana legalization in the hands of the people instead of lawmakers.
“The will of the people should be the law of the land. Republican lawmakers have repeatedly worked to put constitutional amendments on the ballot that Republicans drafted, and Republicans passed, all while Republicans refuse to give that same power to the people of Wisconsin. And that’s wrong,” Evers said in a press release Monday.
The announcement comes as Wisconsinites saw five statewide referendum questions in 2024 — the most referenda in a single year since 1982 according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The Republican-controlled Legislature placed all five of the 2024 statewide referendum questions on the ballot.
Evers’ proposal would require the Legislature to create a statewide binding referendum process through a constitutional amendment through which voters then could file petitions with the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) to hold a vote on proposed laws or amendments or to repeal current state laws enacted. Under the proposal, signatures collected would be validated by the WEC and a vote would be held at the next general election at least 120 days after the petition was filed.
Evers had called a special session in 2022 to create a statewide binding referendum process but Republicans rejected the idea and called it a “desperate political stunt.”
While Republicans retained control in both houses of the state Legislature after the 2024 general election, the first of which ran on Wisconsin’s new legislative maps, they lost their electoral supermajority. Evers said he sees opportunities to work with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle during the budget writing process.
Evers is set to release his 2025-27 budget request in full on Feb. 18. State lawmakers are expected to vote and approve a final version of the state’s spending plan before the new fiscal year begins on July 1.
Anna Kleiber is the state news editor for The Daily Cardinal. She previously served as the arts editor. Anna has written in-depth on elections, legislative maps and campus news. She has interned with WisPolitics and Madison Magazine. Follow her on Twitter at @annakleiber03.
