Wisconsin lawmakers file lawsuit against governor over ‘unconstitutional’ vetoes
The Wisconsin legislature filed a lawsuit against Gov. Tony Evers and the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, accusing Evers of misusing his veto power on literacy education legislation. Evers altered a bill in February, allowing DPI to use allocated funds for various programs, sparking the legal dispute. The Wisconsin legislature has taken legal action against Governor Tony Evers and the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, alleging that Evers misused his veto power regarding literacy education legislation. This dispute arose when Evers modified a bill in February, enabling DPI to utilize designated funds for multiple programs, leading to a legal confrontation.
The Wisconsin legislature filed a lawsuit Tuesday against Gov. Tony Evers (D-WI) and the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, alleging that Evers improperly utilized his veto power on legislation concerning literacy education.
The intrastate drama started when Evers used his veto power to change parts of a bill passed in February, including a section that would require DPI to only use allocated funds for specific literacy programs. As part of the veto, Evers altered the language of the bill so that DPI could use the money “for any ‘literacy program’ that office deems fit,” as the lawsuit claims DPI does not have a titled literacy program.
The lawsuit claims that Evers can’t veto the bill because it is not an appropriations bill, but the bill did create the framework for the Joint Committee on Finance to direct $50 million in funds. Appropriations bills, which expend or set aside public funds, can be vetoed.
If the bill had been an appropriations bill, prior to the veto it would have had to pass a roll call vote in the Wisconsin Assembly and Senate, according to the Wisconsin legislature, which it did not. Evers should have called for this roll call if he knew it was an appropriations vote, the lawsuit says, and he did not.
Lawyers for the Wisconsin legislature are asking for a temporary injunction to halt DPI from spending any funds approved for literacy, though the JCF still seeks to use the funds for the specified literacy programs.
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“When the Legislature passes an appropriations bill, the governor can exercise line-item veto authority under the Wisconsin Constitution, and Republicans didn’t seem to have concerns about this concept until Wisconsinites elected and re-elected a Democratic governor,” Evers spokeswoman Britt Cudaback said. “This is yet another Republican effort to prevent Gov. Evers from doing what’s best for our kids and our schools — this time about improving literacy and reading outcomes across our state.”
Evers recently brought his own lawsuit against the GOP chairs of three legislative committees, seeking to limit the legislature’s own personal power on policy decisions made by the state’s executive branch.
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