MADISON, Wis. — Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin are challenging Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ partial veto in a new lawsuit, alleging Evers improperly struck out parts of a bill that established a plan to spend $50 million on student literacy.
The lawmakers filed their suit Tuesday in Dane County Circuit Court. The effort focuses on a pair of bills designed to improve the reading performance of elementary school students.
Evers signed the first bill in July. That measure created an early literacy coaching program within the state’s Department of Public Instruction, as well as grants for public and private schools that use approved reading curricula. The state budget that Evers signed weeks before the passage of the literacy law set aside $50 million for the initiatives, but the law allocated none of that money.
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The governor signed another bill in February that Republicans said created guidelines for allocating the $50 million. Evers used his partial veto to convert the multiple allocations into a single allocation to DPI, a move he said would simplify things and give the agency more flexibility. He also used his partial veto to eliminate subsidies for private voucher and charter schools.
Republicans argue in their lawsuit that the partial vetoes were unconstitutional. They argue that the governor can only exercise his partial veto on bills that actually appropriate money, and the February bill does not allocate a single cent for DPI. They called the bill in the lawsuit a “framework” for the spending.
Evers’ office on Thursday pointed to a memo from the Legislature’s nonpartisan attorneys calling the measure an appropriations bill.
Wisconsin governors, both Republican and Democratic, have long used the broad partial veto to reshape the state budget. It’s an act of gamesmanship between the governor and the Legislature, with lawmakers trying to craft bills in a way that’s largely immune to creative vetoes.
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The governor’s spokesman, Britt Cudaback, said in a statement that Republicans did not appear to have a problem with partial vetoes until a Democrat took office.
“This is yet another Republican attempt to prevent Governor Evers from doing what is best for our children and our schools – this time about improving literacy and reading outcomes in our state,” Cudaback said.
The latest lawsuit comes after Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, the state’s largest business group, filed a lawsuit Monday asking the state Supreme Court to strike down Evers’ partial vetoes in the state budget, which would have blocked increases in school funding for the coming recorded for 400 years.
