By Jon Styf
The Center Square

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers vetoed nine bills Friday, including a much-debated bill that would prevent tax money from going toward the health care of undocumented immigrants.

The bill had passed the Senate 21-12 and the Assembly 51-44 with bill sponsors saying it was aimed at preventing those who are unlawfully present in the country from receiving BadgerCare benefits.

Evers pointed to legislative debate on Assembly Bill 308 where a co-author stated that undocumented immigrants already cannot enroll in BadgerCare.

“I am vetoing this bill in its entirety because I object to Republican lawmakers passing legislation they acknowledge is unnecessary to prevent problems they admit do not exist, all for the sake of trying to push polarizing political rhetoric,” Evers wrote in his veto message.

Sen. Tim Carpenter, D-Milwaukee, was removed from the Committee on Licensing, Regulatory Reform, State and Federal Affairs after a dispute about the bill when Carpenter reached for the gavel of Committee Chair Sen. Chris Kapenga, R-Delafield.

Evers also vetoed bills regarding student teaching requirements, disputes with the Elections Commission, military recruiting access to schools, building codes, emotional support animals, the state smoking ban in tobacco bars, data from University of Wisconsin system schools and a ban on local guaranteed income programs.

“I am vetoing this bill in its entirety because I object to burdening institutions of higher education in Wisconsin with additional administrative requirements, most especially when the Wisconsin State Legislature imposes such mandates without providing the necessary resources to successfully implement those requirements,” Evers wrote in vetoing Assembly Bill 166. “Further, many of the mandated reporting as required under this bill will, according to the University of Wisconsin System, ‘overlap substantially’ with existing information that is already available and submitted to the federal government.”