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Wisconsin’s governor thinks it’s time to give residents more say in shaping the state’s laws—especially on issues like marijuana legalization, which has broad support but keeps getting blocked by Republican lawmakers.
During a recent press conference, Gov. Tony Evers (D) announced plans to include a proposal in his 2025-27 budget that would let voters introduce and pass laws directly through ballot initiatives. These initiatives could be used to change state statutes or even the constitution if approved by a majority.
“The will of the people should be the law of the land,” Evers said. He criticized Republican lawmakers for pushing their own constitutional amendments while refusing to give voters the same power. “That’s wrong,” he added.
Evers didn’t hold back. “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.”
He pointed to marijuana legalization as one example of an issue with bipartisan support. Evers said there’s majority backing for “legalizing and taxing marijuana like we do alcohol,” along with other topics like abortion rights, gun safety, and school funding. But he accused Republicans of repeatedly ignoring public opinion.
In 2022, Evers tried to push the idea of citizen-led ballot initiatives through a special legislative session, hoping it could pave the way for marijuana legalization. However, the GOP-controlled legislature shut the idea down.
Whether Republicans will support Evers’ new proposal is unclear. They’ve previously rejected his budget suggestions, including calls for both recreational and medical cannabis legalization.
Evers has emphasized marijuana reform as a top priority heading into the 2025 session, especially with the state sitting on a budget surplus. He also sees the 2024 election as a potential turning point.
“We’ve been working hard over the last five years, several budgets, to make that happen,” Evers said earlier. “I know we’re surrounded by states with recreational marijuana, and we’re going to continue to do it.”
Polling suggests he’s on the right track—65 percent of rural voters in Wisconsin said they support cannabis legalization.
Despite this, the GOP-controlled legislature has yet to even pass a limited medical marijuana bill. A conservative proposal introduced last January went nowhere, even after being promoted by the Assembly speaker. Republicans also stripped marijuana measures from Evers’ previous budget requests.
Frustrations boiled over last year when a Democratic Assemblymember tried to force a vote on medical marijuana by tacking it onto a kratom bill. But he told Marijuana Moment that Republicans may have pulled the bill at the last minute to avoid the debate.
Adding to the complications, a GOP-backed medical marijuana bill that proposed state-run dispensaries was criticized by a top Republican senator for being “anti-free market.”
Still, there might be movement. Wisconsin’s Senate president said she hopes lawmakers can have “a conversation” about legalizing medical marijuana in 2025. But she acknowledged that the Republican Assembly speaker remains “an obstacle.”
Meanwhile, the financial case for legalization is growing stronger. A 2023 fiscal analysis from the state Department of Revenue projected that Sen. Melissa Agard’s (D) legalization bill could generate nearly $170 million annually in tax revenue.
Another study estimated Wisconsin residents spent over $121 million on cannabis in Illinois in 2022, bringing in $36 million in taxes for their neighbor.
Democrats, including Evers, have said they’re open to starting small with a medical marijuana program if that’s what it takes to get the ball rolling. But for now, progress depends on whether Republicans are ready to listen to the voters.
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