Wisconsin’s Democratic Governor Tony Evers Applies Constitutional Alchemy to Veto State GOP School Funding Budget

“Everything that happens once can never happen again. But everything that happens twice will surely happen a third time.” – Paul Coehlo, author, The Alchemist

Things do happen, especially when Wisconsin’s Democratic Gov. Tony Evers is clothed with an enormous power, the “partial veto.” His ability to magically alter the recently passed GOP state school funding budget extends those powers into another realm that is feared by Wisconsin legislators: governmental alchemy. Evers, the Alchemist-in-Chief, was AP reported, affronted by the GOP’s tax cutting mania and here’s what he did: he extended the pubic school budget’s $325 per student from 2023 to 2025 to 2023-2425 to prevent the GOP from cutting it in the future. The deep future – doing some quick cocktail napkin arithmetic that’s 402 years. And – bonus! – it’s permitted by Wisconsin’s constitution, the only state that allows a partial line item veto for appropriations bills. Only a court or a legislative act – overriding Evers’ partial veto is a non starter – can alter this. Period. Very Wisconsin. The AP put it well: “Evers’ partial veto extends a school funding increase farther in the future — 402 years — than the United States has been a country — 247 years.”

The Wisconsin governor has the power to partially veto appropriation bills, a power that is unique across all states. Most state constitutions grant the governor “item veto” power over appropriation bills, allowing the governor to strike or reduce appropriations. But the partial veto power allows the governor to strike words, numbers, and punctuation in both appropriation and non-appropriation text, thus giving the governor a role in the lawmaking process in a far more substantial way than simply having veto power over an entire bill. Armed with the partial veto, the governor can alter text and numbers to create laws that not only may have been unintended by the legislature, but also that the legislature deliberately rejected.

The Wisconsin Governor’s Partial Veto, Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau

Yet, Gov. Evers may not veto appropriations provisions just by thinking about them, as a former president has claimed about classified documents. There’s no telepathic power clause in Wisconsin’s constitution although Evers may consider promoting it. This power confers upon the governor something akin to those of an alchemist; in a sense, he can turn water into lemonade, without interference, any time he likes with only limited exceptions.

These exceptions arose because past governors tried their own ways to alter appropriations, and other, bills. Some of them downright pesky, so much so that courts and politicos took notice and forbade them, a court called them “unusual, even quirky.” Quirky indeed. Former Republican Gov. Scott Walker in 2017 issued a thousand-year veto to run from 2018 to 3018. Republican Gov. Tommy Thompson, became masterful. “Thompson didn’t just veto numbers. He vetoed words, parts of sentences, whole paragraphs and individual letters in a long string of words to create brand-new anagrams spelling out policies legislators never discussed.” Republicans hope to change that when Democrats are governors; Democrats hope to do same to Republican governors.

So this time around, Governor Evers deployed his magic to halt GOP attacks on public education; they favor charter schools and other things that weaken public schools. The governor, armed with a magic pen, executed what is known as a pro gamer move – “a maneuver or form of movement, smooth, yet quick, nimble and skillful.” Agree with the existence of a partial veto or not, Governor Evers, magically or otherwise, buttressed Wisconsin’s public school system for . . . 402 years, more or less. A good start if it survives the next governor.