Wisconsin Supreme Court sides with Republican Legislature in fight with governor

MADISON, Wis. — A unanimous Wisconsin Supreme Court handed a victory to the Republican-controlled Legislature on Wednesday in a power struggle with Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, reining in the governor's expansive veto powers.

The court struck down Evers' partial veto of a Republican bill in a case that tested both the limits of his veto powers and the Legislature's ability to exert influence by controlling funding.

The court also ruled that the Legislature can put money for certain state programs into an emergency fund under the control of its budget committee. Evers had argued such a move was unconstitutional.

The ruling will likely result in the Legislature crafting the budget and other spending bills in similar ways to get around Evers' partial vetoes and to have even greater control over spending.

The ruling against Evers comes after the court earlier this year upheld Evers' partial veto that locked in a school funding increase for 400 years. The court last year issued a ruling that reined in some powers of the Legislature's budget committee, while this ruling went the other way.

Evers clashes with Legislature

Evers, in his seventh year as governor, has frequently clashed with the Legislature and often used his broad veto powers to kill their proposals. Republican lawmakers have tried to take control away from the governor's office by placing money to fund certain programs and state agencies in an emergency fund controlled by the Legislature's budget committee. That gives the Legislature significant influence over that funding and the implementation of certain programs within the executive branch.

Evers argued that the Legislature is trying to limit his partial veto power and illegally control how the executive branch spends money.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday sided with the Legislature.

It ruled that Evers improperly used his partial veto on a bill that detailed the plan for spending on new literacy programs designed to improve K-12 students' reading performance. The court also sided with the Legislature and said the budget committee can legally put money into an emergency fund to be distributed later. That is what it has done with the $50 million for the literacy program.

Fight over literacy funding

In 2023, Evers signed into law a bill that created an early literacy coaching program within the state Department of Public Instruction. The bill also created grants for schools that adopt approved reading curricula to pay for changing their programs and to train teachers on the new practices.

However, Republicans put the $50 million to pay for the new initiative in a separate emergency fund controlled by the Legislature's budget committee.

Evers argued that the Legislature didn't have the power to withhold the money and the court should order it to be released to the education department.

The Supreme Court declined to do that, saying the money was appropriated to the Legislature and the court has no authority to order it to be released to the education department to fund the literacy program.

Evers urged the Legislature's budget committee to release the money.

Republican co-chairs of the committee said Wednesday they looked forward to releasing the money and they blamed the governor's veto with delaying it going to schools.

If no action is taken by Monday, the $50 million will go back into the state's general fund.

The Legislature has been increasing the amount of money it puts in the emergency fund that it can release at its discretion, but it remains a small percentage of the total state budget. In the last budget, about $230 million was in the fund, or about half of a percentage point of the entire budget.

Republicans sue to stop veto

Evers used his partial veto power on another bill that created the mechanism for spending the $50 million for the new program. He argued that his changes would simplify the process and give DPI more flexibility. Evers also eliminated grants for private voucher and charter schools.

Republican legislators sued, contending that the governor illegally used his partial veto power.

State law allows only for a partial veto of bills that spend money. For all other bills, the governor must either sign or veto them in their entirety.

Because the bill Evers partially vetoed was a framework for spending, but didn't actually allocate any money, his partial vetoes were unconstitutional, the Supreme Court said, agreeing with Republican lawmakers.

''The constitution gives the governor authority to veto in part only appropriation bills — not bills that are closely related to appropriation bills,'' Justice Rebecca Bradley wrote.

Republican legislative leaders called the ruling a ''rebuke'' of Evers.

''While the Governor wanted to play politics with money earmarked for kids' reading programs, it is encouraging to see the Court put an end to this game," Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu said in a joint statement.