Perspectives
July 31, 2024 | By Dan O’Donnell
Policy Issues
Ballot Integrity Constitution

Shut Down the Evers Slush Fund

On August 13th, voters have the chance to end the $4 billion slush fund that Governor Evers has been operating for more than four years now. Dan O’Donnell explains how.

Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers and his allies are fighting desperately to protect his personal slush fund ahead of the August primary, spending millions trying to convince voters that frivolously wasting their money is his God-given birthright.

This full-court press is aimed at protecting the billions in federal COVID relief from any sort of legislative oversight, even though the Evers Administration itself admitted that he is an irresponsible steward of public funds—frittering away billions for which it still can’t account.

Because of this, Wisconsinites have no choice but to vote “Yes” on the two constitutional amendments on the August 13th ballot, returning the power of the state’s purse to the Legislature and returning balance to the separation of powers in state government.

Question 1 asks whether the Legislature should reclaim its power to allocate how all taxpayer money—both state and federal—should be allocated. It should. Question 2 asks whether the Legislature must approve the spending of all federal money the governor accepts. It must.

For the sake of returning fiscal responsibility to Wisconsin, it must. For the sake of ensuring governmental accountability, it must. For the sake of restoring some modicum of sanity, it must.

In the 1930s, when the federal government was providing states with aid to combat the ravages of the Great Depression, the Legislature abdicated its own authority by passing a law stating that “whenever the United States government shall make available to this state funds for the education, the promotion of health, the relief of indigency, the promotion of agriculture or for any other purpose other than the administration of the tribal or any individual funds of Wisconsin Indians, the governor on behalf of the state is authorized to accept the funds so made available.”

This gave the Governor sole discretion over federal funds that flowed into the state, which became a massive problem when Evers horded billions in COVID money for years and spent it on decidedly non-COVID-related items like minor league baseball, a new soccer stadium, movie theaters, summer camps, and more DEI programs than once thought humanly possible.

Far worse—unforgivably worse, in fact—the Evers Administration was forced to admit last year that it had no earthly idea where a stunning $4 billion of that money even went. In December 2022, the Legislative Audit Bureau determined that Evers’ Department of Administration never documented how it allocated two-thirds of the nearly $6 billion in federal aid it had taken in since the pandemic began in March 2020 and could provide only anecdotal accounts of the rationale for how that money was spent.

In short, the money was just sort of…gone. No oversight, no receipts, nothing. Department of Administration Secretary-designee Kathy Blumfeld made it that clear when she stammered and stumbled her way through testimony to the Legislature in early 2023.

“We can’t produce — we wouldn’t want to, it wouldn’t be right — something that doesn’t exist,” she finally admitted.

What wouldn’t be right would be the public allowing her to allocate another dime without legislative oversight—especially when it seems like the only thing she hasn’t approved spending money on is a sack of magic beans. Don’t worry, though, the Evers Administration still has $1.8 billion in federal money tucked away in its slush fund. We think. No way of knowing how much, really. We just have to trust the Governor that he’ll spend it appropriately.

And why wouldn’t he? To battle the dreaded COVID-19 virus, he spent $9.3 million for a soccer stadium in Milwaukee. To provide badly needed aid to businesses he shut down, he spent $7 million to expand the National Railroad Museum in Green Bay. And to help schoolchildren make up their severe learning loss, he spent $15 million on a new convention center in Janesville.

None of these projects, which of course went to major Democrat cities, had anything to do with COVID relief and all were allocated in November 2023, long after the virus had died down, businesses were reponed, and kids went back to school.

This is the most noxious sort of slush fund—one designed to rain free money on political backers to ensure their perpetual loyalty—and one that has operated in plain sight for more than four years.

Until now, that is. You have the power to shut it down immediately by voting “Yes” on both referendum questions this August 13th.

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