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October 09, 2024 | By Benjamin Yount
Policy Issues
Accountable Government Constitution Education State Budget

Gov. Evers’ Lawyer: 400-Year School Funding Veto Not Technically Illegal

The liberal-majority Wisconsin Supreme Court is considering whether Gov. Evers (D) broke state law by vetoing in 400-years of higher property taxes in the last state budget.

Wisconsin’s governor is arguing that nothing in state law specifically outlaws erasing a few numbers and dashes to send more money to the state’s public schools for the next four centuries.

The liberal-majority Wisconsin Supreme Court heard arguments on Wednesday in the lawsuit that challenges the Gov. Tony Evers’ 400-year veto.

“The governor is becoming the most powerful person in the state, arguably, to just make the law whatever he declares,” conservative Justice Rebecca Bradley said at one point.

The Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce Litigation Center filed the lawsuit, claiming the governor’s veto violates Wisconsin’s 1990 ban on the so-called Vanna White veto.

Voters approved a constitutional amendment that stopped governors from erasing letters to create new words, and as a result, change state laws.

Evers’ attorney on Wednesday argued that the Vanna White veto ban only applies to letters, not numbers.

“In every single one of these deletion veto cases, what the court has said is that the only test under the Constitution…is that a complete and workable law remains,” attorney Colin Roth told the court.

Roth said Gov. Evers was simply following a long-established law.

But even some of the court’s liberal justices questioned if there are any limits on the governor’s power.

“It does feel like the sky is the limit,” liberal Justice Jill Karofsky said. “The stratosphere is the limit.”

Swing Justice Biran Hagedorn said part of the problem is Wisconsin’s long history of allowing governors to use their tremendous partial veto powers.

“We allow governors to unilaterally create law that has not been proposed to them at all. It is a mess of this court’s making,” Hagedorn said.

Gov. Evers specifically erased the middle numbers in the 2023-2024, 2024-2025 budget to change the school funding increase to 2023-22425.

The veto would send an extra $325 per-student to Wisconsin schools for 400-years.

The court said it should have a decision in the case in a few months.

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