Wisconsin is one of eight states absent of a medical cannabis program—even a highly restrictive program such as in Texas, where THC is capped at 1%.
Wisconsin is also one of 24 states that do not provide for citizen-initiated ballot measures, leaving the will of the people tied behind their backs when their elected officials don’t act.
Democratic Gov. Tony Evers is hoping to change all that.
After clashing with Republicans—who have long held majorities in the Assembly and Senate—on popular issues like cannabis legalization since he took the governor’s office in 2019, Evers announced on Jan. 6 that he plans to include a budget proposal to allow the people of Wisconsin to put binding referenda on the ballot.
The proposal for his 2025-27 biennial budget would include an initiative process allowing citizens to collect signatures to place statutory measures or constitutional amendments on the ballot as well as a referendum process to allow citizens to collect signatures to ask voters whether to uphold or repeal laws that are currently enacted, such as Wisconsin’s abortion ban.
“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.
“Republican lawmakers shouldn’t be able to ignore the will of the people and then prevent the people from having a voice when the Legislature fails to listen,” he said. “That has to change. If Republican lawmakers are going to continue to try and legislate by constitutional amendment, then they should give the people that same power and that’s what I’ll be asking them to do in my next budget.”
Evers pointed to a February 2024 survey conducted by Marquette Law School pollsters who found 86% of registered Wisconsin voters supported legalizing medical cannabis, including 78% of Republicans, while 63% of registered voters supported legalizing adult-use cannabis.
The governor also highlighted other survey results from Marquette University, including polled majorities that support abortion rights, universal background checks on firearm purchases, accepting federal funds to expand Medicaid, and creating a nonpartisan commission to redraw legislative districts.
Wisconsin is one of the most gerrymandered states in the nation, with legislative districts determined by the Legislature. For example, Evers, a Democrat, won reelection in 2022 by a 3.4% margin, but, that same year, Republicans increased their majorities in both the state Senate (67%) and House (65%).
Although Evers had pushed for adult-use cannabis legalization via his state budget proposals in past years, he was willing to get on board with a more limited medical cannabis program that was proposed by Republican lawmakers last year. That Republican plan unraveled, however, when Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu locked horns over the idea of state-run dispensaries.
RELATED: Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Won’t Call Cannabis Legalization Bill For Vote
Vos and LeMahieu remain in their leadership positions this legislation session, and friction between the two chambers in the cannabis reform arena appears to live on. Senate President Mary Felzkowski, a Republican who sponsored medical cannabis legislation in previous sessions, said last month that Vos, as the Assembly speaker, remains an “obstacle” to medical cannabis legalization.
“There’s really one person that has seemed to be an obstacle to the medical marijuana bill passing,” Felzkowski told WisPolitics last month. “That person has some pretty strict ideas on how that bill should be drafted. So, we’re hoping to have a conversation in early January to see if there isn’t a way that we can come to a consensus between Assembly Republicans and Senate Republicans to negotiate a compromise and maybe move a medical marijuana bill this session.”
That seemed to be the hope last session, too, before neither side budged on the issue.
Although Evers is attempting to take cannabis reform out of the hands of the lawmakers and put it into the hands of the voters, that likely won’t happen: After the governor introduces the budget, the Republican-controlled Legislature, through a 16-member Joint Committee on Finance, must review and approve the budget before it becomes enacted.
Still, Evers is calling attention to cannabis legalization, which he’s recommended regulating like alcohol throughout his tenure as governorship.
“GOP lawmakers have long ignored the will of the people, from legalizing marijuana to restoring Roe,” Evers wrote Monday on X. “That has to change.”
The governor’s 2025 proposal would require the Legislature to create a statewide binding referendum process through a constitutional amendment, allowing voters to file petitions with the Wisconsin Elections Commission to hold a vote on proposed state laws and constitutional amendments, or to repeal current state law, according to Evers’ office.
Evers also proposed creating a statewide referendum process in 2022, when he called a special session in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, hoping that lawmakers would create a pathway for Wisconsin voters to repeal the state’s abortion ban.
Republicans refused to consider Evers’ proposal, gaveling in and out of the special session “in a matter of seconds” without debate, according to the governor’s office.
Democratic Gov. Tony Evers is including the proposal in his state budget as Republican state lawmakers continue to lock horns on medical cannabis reform. Read More
