The Department of Public Instruction will not receive $50 million to implement a reading bill passed in 2023, the Wisconsin Supreme Court unanimously ruled Wednesday.
The court found the Joint Finance Committee is not improperly withholding funds from DPI. The court also reversed a lower court’s finding that Governor Evers was acting within his constitutional authority when he used his partial veto authority last year on the reading bill.
In a unanimous opinion Wednesday written by conservative Justice Rebecca Bradley, the Supreme Court ruled against Evers.
The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday the funding bill was not an appropriations bill, therefore the Evers’ partial veto was unconstitutional.
“Although the executive branch may be frustrated by constitutional limits on the governor’s power to veto non-appropriation bills, the judiciary must respect the People’s choice to impose them,” Bradley wrote.