MADISON, WI (WTAQ) - Governor Scott Walker signed a bill Wednesday that ends the Secretary of State’s ability to decide when new state laws will take effect.

From now on, the Legislative Reference Bureau will publish and adopt all bills one day after they’re signed – unless they specifically call for later dates.

Majority Republicans passed the measure after Secretary of State Doug La Follette waited for the previous maximum of 10 days to publish the controversial limits on public union bargaining in 2011. La Follette said he was trying to give the public time to digest the new law – but Republicans were angered.

And when they changed the procedure, Democrats called it political payback. The GOP says the new policy will treat bills with more consistency.

It was one of seven bills Walker signed Wednesday.

Another measure exempts veterinarians from having to report all their medicine prescriptions to the state – just like pharmacists must do for people’s prescriptions.