VIROQUA, Wis. – The Vernon County General Government Committee approved a change to Vernon County Ordinances that will limit the kinds of advisory referendums that can be placed on the ballot in Vernon County. The change brings the county in line with a recent changes in state law that took place when the Wisconsin legislature negotiated a budget deal with Governor Tony Evers. The change known as Act 12 prohibits local governments from holding advisory referendums except in a few very limited circumstances.
In the last 12 years, 80 municipalities and 12 counties in Wisconsin passed referendums supporting amending the U.S. Constitution to state that corporations aren’t persons and money isn’t speech. 32 counties and 21 municipalities passed a fair maps referendum demanding an end to the gerrymandering that reinforces a system where noncompetitive elections allow politicians to continue to choose their voters rather than voters choosing their leaders.
A non-partisan group of citizens was able to gather enough signatures to place an advisory referendum on abortion on the April ballot in Vernon County. The question on the ballot read: “Should the Wisconsin legislature repeal the state’s 1849 abortion ban that provides no exceptions in cases of rape or incest, nor to protect the health of the mother?” More than 1,300 Vernon County residents signed the petition requesting that the county board place the referendum on the ballot. Vernon County overwhelmingly voted yes to that referendum question 65 percent to 35 percent.
Wisconsin is one of 24 states where voters cannot directly add binding initiatives to ballots, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Supporters of advisory referendums say that these nonbinding votes are a tool gather public sentiment on an issue and present public pressure to elected officials.
Critics of these advisory referendums say they can threaten representative democracy by allowing voters to determine the priorities they’d already elected people to set. They also argue these referendums are used to juice up turnout in low-key elections, rather than to meaningfully effect policy.
At the Vernon County General Government Committee on August 1, Vernon County Clerk Jerry Pedretti presented some options to the committee to bring the local ordinance into line with the state law. Pedretti said the county could do a full repeal of the ordinance and not allow any local advisory referendums, or they could amend the ordinance to allow only certain types of referendums including revenue sharing agreements between political subdivisions and referendums regarding county capital expenditures funded by the property tax levy. The change only impacts the ability to use advisory referendums and not binding referendums. The county would still have the ability to place those on the ballot.
The resolution did prompt some discussion on the committee.
Supervisor Mary Henry, who is not on the General Government Committee, but was in attendance, asked if the referendum like the abortion question that was on the ballot in April would be allowed. Pedretti said it would not be allowed.
“That’s baloney,” said Henry. “Now we are saying we are not going to listen to you. I don’t care if we have it advisory or not. We’re not listening. Now they’re saying no we don’t want to hear. We’ve already made our decision basically is what they’re saying.”
“So at a higher level they’ve narrowed our scope and so what you’re bringing us are options for us to amend our ordinance to be in line with what the states is,” said Committee Chair Alycann Taylor. “I personally don’t think we should fully repeal it because then we’re taking all avenues of voice from our constituents. I like the amendment that makes it real to what the state has said. That’s my opinion.”
Supervisor Mary Bringe was in favor of limiting what topics could be placed on the ballot
“I kind of have a question about this,” said Bring. “Because what we did with the last referendum, it was interesting, we heard voices, but it wasn’t really an issue that we as a County had any control over. And in its own way I felt it was kind of that it shouldn’t have been there. Because it wasn’t our issue. That was a state issue. And I understand trying to limit some of this because it it does get to be on the county kind of an extra duty. So was is really necessary? Yes, citizens need to be heard but I think if it’s not a referendum that we as a county have any real input on, why are we spending the time and energy on them?”
Bringe said she was in favor of the option to amend the local ordinance rather than completely repealing the ordinance.
“I’d would rather amend than completely take things out,” said Bringe. “I want people to have some voice here.”
The ordinance amendment to still allow the two types of advisory referendums passed by unanimous voice vote. The ordinance change will still need to be approved by the full county board at their meeting on Tuesday, August 15.
Here is the agenda for that meeting.
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