Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce previously filed a lawsuit in April, directly with the Supreme Court, that seeks to overturn Governor Evers use of the partial veto to annually raise school revenue limits by $325 per pupil until 2425. Today, the Court has announced it will take up the suit. Petitioners in the case will have 30 days to file a brief before the court and respondents will have to file a reply or statement they will not reply within 20 days of the filing, according to the Supreme Court order. If respondents file a brief, petitioners will then have 10 days to either file a reply brief or statement that no brief will be filed. A date for oral arguments has yet to be scheduled.
During the biennium budget negotiations, Evers used his partial veto power (which lets Wisconsin governor’s strike out certain parts of appropriation bills when signing), to change individual words and digits in a sentence that was originally intended to raise revenue limits by $325 for the 2023-24 and 2024-25 school years. The action drew much controversy from critics who pointed out that a previous 1990 constitutional amendment states that “[the governor] may not create a new word by rejecting individual letters in the words of the enrolled bill”. Strangely there is an exception to this rule in Wisconsin precedent, which allows a governor to take this type of action so long as the effect reduces appropriations. The suit also questions if by extending an appropriation past a timeline designated by the legislature, the governor is increasing appropriations, which they claim is unconstitutional given past precedent.
The WASB will be following this suit closely and update members when important actions are taken.
