Assembly speaker tells Gov. Scott Walker in testy texts he 'won't forget' his vetoes

MADISON - Assembly Speaker Robin Vos vented frustration to Gov. Scott Walker in text messages this month over a budget deal Walker cut with Senate conservatives.

“I won’t forget this,” the Rochester Republican texted the GOP governor after he announced his veto plans.

Just after the budget cleared its last legislative hurdle, Walker detailed the most significant vetoes he planned to make. Wisconsin governors have vast powers to reshape budgets and other legislation that spends money.

“Very disappointed in the way I've been treated ... not even the courtesy of a phone call before you took out things that were important to me,” Vos wrote in another message.

The governor did not respond with text messages of his own.

The text messages from Vos to Walker were first reported by The Associated Press. The governor’s office released copies of them to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel late Thursday under the state’s public records law.

The messages underscore the depth of animosity between two of the state’s leading Republicans and come after protracted budget negotiations.

The budget was to be completed by July 1, but Walker and Republican lawmakers could not reach a deal on time because of differences on taxes and transportation. They brokered an agreement this month that cleared the Assembly but then briefly faltered in the Senate.

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Senate conservatives said they couldn’t support the version of the budget passed by the Assembly and three of them — Chris Kapenga of Delafield, Steve Nass of Whitewater and Duey Stroebel of Saukville — agreed to vote “yes” only after receiving veto assurances from Walker.

Walker agreed to make several changes to the budget, including ones that would speed up the repeal of a minimum wage for those working on publicly funded construction jobs and keep in place the ability of local governments to regulate quarries.

Vos sent his first text to Walker as it became clear the Senate was short on votes.

“We aren't changing our deal to get Senate votes,” he wrote. “We have one they negotiated. I'm passing the budget this week and leaving, not to return until October.”

He followed those up with the ones saying he was “very disappointed” and “won’t forget this.”

Vos later briefly held up delivering the budget to Walker until he could talk to Walker about vetoes. 

It is not the first time the two have had testy exchanges. In April, Vos complained in a text message that Walker wasn’t giving legislators “ownership” of the budget, with Walker firing back that his past budgets “got trashed” by his GOP colleagues.