Line-item veto
Definition
A line-item veto lets a governor strike or reduce individual spending items in a budget bill without vetoing the entire bill. Most states grant this power for appropriations bills. The U.S. president has not had it since a 1998 Supreme Court ruling against a federal version.
Why it matters
Line-item veto power hands governors real leverage over the legislature's spending priorities, letting them punish specific lawmakers by cutting their district's earmarks or reward allies by leaving theirs intact. Some governors have stretched the power creatively, editing words or numbers within a line rather than deleting it outright, which courts have had to referee.
Seen in the wild
Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers used his line-item veto in the 2023 budget bill to strike a hyphen and a "20" from a school funding provision, effectively extending a per-pupil revenue increase from two years to 400 years. The Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld this veto in 2025.