Wisconsin Supreme Court to take up challenge to Evers veto that raised school funding for 400 years

The Wisconsin Supreme Court will hear a challenge to Gov. Tony Evers's (D-WI) use of his veto powers, which enabled him to secure funding for K-12 public schools for the next 400 years.

The state’s high court will bypass lower courts and take up the issue directly with its new 4-3 liberal majority. In April, a Wisconsin business lobbying firm, the Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce’s Litigation Center, filed a lawsuit to strike down Evers's use of the partial veto, arguing that he exceeded authority in doing so.

The lawsuit alleged that Wisconsin law “forbids the governor from striking individual digits in an enrolled bill to create a new year.”

Last year, Evers used his partial veto powers to strike through a hyphen and “20” from a reference to the 2024-25 school year in the state’s budget. In doing so, he increased school funding by $325 per student per year for the next 402 years. Before his partial veto, the budget was set to increase school funding by $325 per student for only the next two years through 2025.

“People are saying, ‘How can he do this?'” former Republican Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson said of the Evers veto. “Well, he did it.”

Wisconsin governors from both sides of the aisle have long taken advantage of the partial veto. Former Republican Gov. Scott Walker used his partial veto powers to allow one state program to last indefinitely in a move known as the “thousand-year veto.”

The lawsuit against Evers asked the state’s high court to take up the issue instead of having it move through the lower courts, which the Supreme Court agreed to.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

“In no uncertain terms, 402 years is not less than or part of the two-year duration approved by the Legislature — it is far more,” WMC Litigation Center Executive Director Scott Rosenow said . “The governor overstepped his authority with this partial veto, at the expense of taxpayers, and we believe oversight by the Court is necessary.”

The group believes Evers's use of the veto violates a constitutional amendment Wisconsin voters passed in 1990. The amendment banned the use of “Vanna White” or “pick-a-letter” vetoes, which allowed governors to delete phrases, single digits, letters, or words to create new words or sentences.