Gov. Walker to sign state budget Sunday, will he use line-item veto powers?

Legislature finishes budget: Will Walker use line-item veto powers to change anything?

MILWAUKEE -- Governor Scott Walker promises to be headlining the next 48 hours of news coverage. Sunday, July 12th he's set to sign the state budget. Then on Monday, July 13th he'll officially announce that he's running for president.

We have a pretty good idea of what the governor will be doing the next couple of days, but what we don't know is will he use his line-item veto powers to bolster his conservative credentials for that presidential run?

What's in and what's out? That's the budget debate that's been captivating the state for months. Now, finally lawmakers have kicked a finished bill to the governor's desk.

But that debate isn't quite over just yet.

"It's the governor of Wisconsin who has, believe it or not, the most extensive powers of line-item veto of all the states in America," said UWM Professor of Urban Planning, Mordecai Lee.

So now the question is: How will he use those powers? Professor Mordecai Lee predicts the governor purposely won't be making major edits.

"He's going to have very few substantive vetoes. That he's going to have much fewer than he had in his first budget and in his second budget -- this is his third budget. I think what he wants is to get this budget behind him and to keep the legislature happy," said Professor Lee.

The goal being to keep his colleagues happy enough to abstain from grumbling about him to pesky members of the national media profiling him during his presidential run.

"If he keeps the legislature happy then that means that he'll be able to sort of feel safe politically," said Lee.

While the governor may not shed much ink on Sunday, Professor Lee predicts the edits he does make will be targeted to bolster his conservative credentials for the upcoming presidential race.

"He might want to just carefully re-craft it so that nobody can claim that he's a moderate," said Professor Lee.

If the governor does choose to veto a portion or portions of the budget, lawmakers do have the ability to override that veto.As it requires the 2/3rd's majority in both the Assembly and the Senate, Professor Lee tells us that scenario is extremely unlikely.