In June of 2024, the Wisconsin Supreme Court agreed to a court hearing challenging Governor Tony Evers partial veto that aims to lock in a school funding increase for the next 400+ years.
Here’s what we know as of today …
This began when Gov. Evers changed the date for the proposed $325 per-student spending increase from “2024-2025,” to “2425.” In removing the hyphen and the “20” from the date, the increase would be in effect for four centuries.
As a matter of note, Wisconsin governors have the most expansive partial veto power in the country. This is the case because they can strike nearly any part of a budget bill, which is not the case in other states. This power includes removing numbers, words, letters and/or punctuation present in spending bills, in effect, creating new law that wasn't originally intended by the Legislature.
In the past, both Republican and Democratic Wisconsin governors have implemented this partial veto power to reshape the state budget. In some ways, it feels like a chess match between the Legislature and the governor, where both parties are looking to utilize a bill to accomplish their goals as best as possible — with lawmakers working to create bills that are immune (or as immune as possible) from these types of vetoes.
In response to Gov. Evers’ changes to the bill, the Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce Litigation Center (WMC) filed a lawsuit in April of 2024. Their argument is that the governor exceeded his authority, and the WMC proposed that the high court strike down the veto — without waiting for the case to go through lower courts.
The court’s response was that they would take the case.
ADDITIONAL INSIGHTS
- Since liberal justices currently control the state Supreme Court, some are speculating that this improves the chances that Gov. Evers bill alterations will prevail.
- According to Gov. Evers, if this partial veto is successful it would, “provide school districts with predictable long-term increases for the foreseeable future.”
- The per-student amount of $325 per year is estimated to be approximately $75 per student less than what schools would need to keep up with the inflation rate, which will of course fluctuate over time. According to Sara Shaw, a senior researcher with the Wisconsin Policy Forum who focuses on education, this would still be a big win: “Even though it is not going to make up what schools did not receive over the last two years, $325 per pupil is not a small number. It is real money that will decrease in purchasing power over time. But it is meaningful.”
This is not the first time Gov. Evers has used the power of the veto to change school funding. According to Dan Rossmiller, executive director of the - Wisconsin Association School Boards, in his first term Evers (a former state superintendent) allowed an increase in per-pupil aid over the revenue limit.
- On a related note, the Wisconsin state budget also included the largest financial expansion to private school choice in the program’s history, with funding for kindergarten through eighth grade private choice schools increasing from approximately $8,400 per student to $9,500 per student. Funding for private choice high schools will rise from $9,045 to $12,000 per student.