Two years ago, Gov. Tony Evers made national headlines when, with the stroke of his veto pen, he transformed two years of school funding in the state budget into 400 years.
That use of a Wisconsin governor’s unique partial veto power triggered outrage among legislative Republicans, and it spawned a lawsuit that resolved this April when the state Supreme Court’s liberal majority ruled that it was a legal use of the governor’s authority.
Now, Republican lawmakers are circulating a bill that would repeal the results of that veto, arguing it amounts to an unfair property tax increase in perpetuity.
As written, the new GOP proposal would repeal that annual increase after the 2026-27 school year.
“One man locked in a tax-raising mechanism that no one voted for and no one approved. Evers’ move bypassed both the elected Legislature and the hard-working people who pay the bills,” reads the cosponsorship memo.
If the bill passes the Legislature, it will face one significant hurdle to becoming law: Evers’ veto pen.