MADISON — The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Wednesday heard a challenge to Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ partial veto of the state budget that extended a school funding increase for 400 years.
The move angered Republicans when Evers signed the budget into law last year, but the governor’s attorneys argue it falls within his broad power to reject parts of spending bills. The state’s largest business lobbying group, with support from GOP lawmakers, took the case directly to the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
Wisconsin’s governor has the widest-ranging partial veto power in the country. They can strike words, numbers, and even entire sentences. There are some limitations, however. For instance, the governor cannot remove individual letters in order to form new words.
In the veto in question, Evers removed “20” and a hyphen from a portion of the budget allowing public schools to increase their revenue limits by $325 per student in the 2023-24 and 2024-25 school years. The remaining text allowed schools to increase their revenue limits each year through 2425.
Watch: Wisconsin Supreme Court hears lawsuit against governor's 400-year veto
The governor’s attorneys argue that he is allowed to strike individual digits from the budget and that the veto has the same effect as allowing revenue increases indefinitely until the Legislature passes a new law saying otherwise.
“The Legislature enacted a policy that was going to extend a revenue limit increase for two years, sunset that increase after two years,” said attorney Colin Roth, who is representing Evers. “The governor struck that and effectively removed the sunset. To me, removing a sunset is not a radical policy change.”
Conservatives – and legal experts who filed briefs with the court – say the veto violates the Wisconsin Constitution.
“He selectively struck individual digits, whole words, and a dash to effectively create a new word,” said Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce attorney Scott Rosenow, who brought the lawsuit.
Both liberal and conservative justices on the court signaled Wednesday that they believe the veto was novel and extreme, but they offered little insight into how they might try to curb the governor’s partial veto power.
“The governor is becoming the most powerful person in this state, arguably, to just make the law whatever he declares,” Justice Rebecca Bradley said.
“It does feel like the sky is the limit. The stratosphere is the limit,” Justice Jill Karofsky said.
