When the 2023-25 budget bill made it to Gov. Tony Evers, he exercised his partial veto power, striking two digits and a dash from the years to extend the annual increases through 2425 — an additional 400 years. Evers signed the 2023-25 budget bill on July 5, 2023. (Baylor Spears | Wisconsin Examiner)

A handful of Republican lawmakers are seeking, again, to take away schools’ authority to raise their school revenue limits by $325 per pupil annually for the next four centuries, given to them through a partial veto by Gov. Tony Evers. 

Reps. Dave Maxey (R-New Berlin) and Jim Piwowarczyk (R-Hubertus) alongside Sens. Chris Kapenga (R-Delafield) and Steve Nass (R-Whitewater) said in a memo that the bill would put “property tax decisions back into the hands of local voters and taxpayers where they belong.” 

“The pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock 402 years before this veto,” the lawmakers said. “It is hard to justify locking in a funding increase for just as long into the future.” 

In the 2023-25 state budget bill, lawmakers included a $325 increase to schools’ revenue limits for only two years, 2023-24 and 2024-25. When the bill made it to Evers, he exercised his partial veto power, striking two digits and a dash from the years to extend the annual increases through 2425 — an additional 400 years. 

In the last state budget, the Legislature allocated money to school general aid to support the revenue limit increase. The new state budget approved earlier this month did not include any general aid increase meaning that if school districts decide to use the $325 per pupil revenue increase, it will come solely from property taxes. The increase is not automatic and would need to be approved by individual school boards.

The partial veto was controversial at the time with Republican lawmakers complaining that property taxpayers would be burdened by the veto and Evers had broken the deal with lawmakers. Evers defended it, saying he was giving schools a reliable annual funding increase. Republicans sued, attempting to get the veto declared unconstitutional, but the state Supreme Court upheld it in April, saying it was within Evers’ constitutional powers.

Evers celebrated that decision, saying at the time that schools deserve “sustainable, dependable, and spendable state support and investment.” 

“For over a decade, the Legislature has failed to meet that important obligation,” Evers said in April. “Importantly, this decision does not mean our work is done — far from it.” 

The bill faces a difficult path to becoming law as it would need to pass the Assembly and Senate and not be vetoed by Evers.

The bill authors also complained about the governor’s vast veto power, which is one of the broadest in the nation. 

“This use of that power has gone way too far,” the lawmakers said. They referenced the dissent from Justice Brian Hagedorn in the lawsuit, saying that the veto gives the governor “monarchical” powers.

The power has been curtailed in the past through state Supreme Court rulings, including recently when the Court unanimously ruled in another case that one of Evers’ partial vetoes was unconstitutional. Wisconsin governors have also lost some of their considerable partial veto authority through constitutional amendments. 

Evers’ 400-year veto led Republican lawmakers to introduce constitutional amendment proposals that would limit the power further. A constitutional amendment would need to pass the Senate and Assembly twice in consecutive legislative sessions and get approval from voters before it would become law.