Political Power Play in Wisconsin: Governor Evers’ Protects Public School Funding
Madison, Wisconsin– On July 5, Governor Evers held a signing ceremony for the 2023-2025 Wisconsin State Budget. Using his veto authority, Governor Evers made a clever move to ensure increased funding for public schools for the next 400 years by vetoing numbers pertaining to the end date of the clause. When he signed the bill into law, he remarked that “what is best for our kids is what is best for our state.”
State of Politics in Wisconsin
Federally, Wisconsin is extremely competitive. The Badger State elected liberal Tammy Baldwin and conservative Ron Johnson to serve as their Senators, and, for president, Wisconities voted for Donald Trump in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020. The Wisconsin Governors’ race is also competitive, electing both Republican and Democratic governors. Most recently, Wisconsin re-elected Republican Scott Walker in 2014 and replaced him with Democrat Tony Evers in 2018. Evers was re-elected in 2022. However, the Wisconsin State Legislature does not give both parties equal opportunity to win. In fact, the legislature has been institutionally structured to benefit Republicans running for office through a process known as gerrymandering.
George Washington Political Science Professor and Researcher Chris Warsaw has rated Wisconsin’s legislature maps as the top and second-highest gerrymandered maps in the country since Republicans have taken over redistricting back in 2011. In order to measure gerrymandering, researchers look to the political science concept of the “efficiency gap,” measuring the quantity of votes that are negligible or “wasted” when placed into districts. To waste these votes, the redistricting committee places voters in highly red or blue districts through a process known as “packing” or by “cracking” or breaking up communities to create a district that is more favorable to them. Republicans utilized both of these methods in order to win nearly ⅔ of the legislature seats despite only winning 53.6% of the popular vote in 2022. This was even worse in 2018 when Democrats won 54% of the popular vote, but only won 36% of State Assembly seats.
With a Republican-dominated legislature and a Democratic governor, tensions have been high in Madison. For example, with the overturning of Roe, Republicans and Democrats have not come to a consensus over the state of abortion in Wisconsin, leaving a 1849 abortion ban in place. County Republican prosecutors are enforcing the law while the Democratic Attorney General plans to fight the law.
The 2023-2025 State Budget was another political battle between the two parties. Republicans passed their own version of the bill through the state legislature that included top-Republican priorities like cutting income taxes, removing income brackets to make the income tax closer to a flat tax, and removing DEI positions from the UW system. They also allowed for an increase in public and charter education for this period. Wisconsin Republicans and Democrats have often disagreed on educational funding, but Republicans agreed to compromise to a $1 billion increase in funding if Evers would agree to some public voucher programs. Governor Evers’ took advantage of this agreement, using his veto power to extend the funding increase for 400 years.
How the Veto Power Works
Governor Evers leveraged the 1930 constitutional amendment that granted the Governor a partial veto, meaning that the Governor could veto certain elements on the bill while approving others. This power has 
slightly evolved over the years. In 1990 and 2008, there were referendums to eliminate the “Vanna White” veto that allowed governors to create new words with the letters already on the page and the “Frankenstein” veto that prohibited the practice of removing words in sentences to create new ones. Withstanding these limits, Governor Evers had significant leeway to make change.
For the 2023-2025 budget, the legislature approved the $325 per kid funding increase for the 2023-2024 school year and the 2024-2025 school year. However, Governor Evers used his partial veto to remove the “24” from the text, “2023-2024 school year” and the “20” and the hyphen from the text, “2024-2025 school year.” Thus, the remaining text would read “for the limit for 2023-2425, add $325 to the result under par. This does not violate the Vanna White amendment because he made changes to numbers not words. Through these slight changes, Evers could maneuver a public school increase for the next four centuries.
Reaction To This Decision
Reactions from the Governor’s political move have been largely mixed and depend on a person’s political party. Democrats have celebrated the move, including Former Democratic Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle.
Anticipating the backlash, Doyle remarked, “everybody will shout and scream… but he’s got ’em.” Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos was outraged with the decision. He argued that Governor Evers “lied to the people of Wisconsin in the campaign last year… [and] during the negotiation process…it now really calls into question his ability to try to find bipartisan compromises like we’ve been working on this entire year.” Vos hinted at a possible courtsuit or an override veto, but both are unlikely to have success. An override veto would need ⅔ of the legislature, and this approach does not have a history of working. The then-conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court did strike down 3 of Governor Evers’ past partial vetoes in 2020, but an incoming new justice could tip the balance of the court towards Evers’ favor.
Future Outlook on Governor Evers’ Vetoes
In December 2021, conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Pat Roggenack announced her retirement from the bench. In the election held earlier this year, liberal candidate Janet Protasiewicz 
clinched a victory over former Supreme Court Justice Dan Kelly, flipping the bench to a 4-3 liberal majority for the first time since 2008. When asked about Wisconsin maps on the campaign trail, Protasiewicz said she would “enjoy taking a fresh look at the gerrymandering question,” opening the door to fairer districts in the state. With new maps, Democrats would hold more seats in the legislature. Because these new leaders would be members of the Governor’s party, there could be less of a need for the Governor to veto. Further, with a liberal court, Governor Evers’ vetoes are less likely to be struck down.
Ultimately, the future looks promising for Governor Evers to continue exercising his veto power as he wishes. It is still to be seen how often Evers will veto, with a more favorable legislature possibly coming in the near future.
Suggestions for further reading:
Wisconsin’s Assembly maps are more skewed than ever — what happens in 2023?
No contest – Isthmus | Madison, Wisconsin
Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers’ adventures with line-item vetoes
Wisconsin governor employs partial veto to fund schools for 4 centuries – ABC News
Republicans fuming after Evers’ vetoes: vow to ‘stand up and fight’ – Wisconsin Examiner
There’s big change coming to Wisconsin Supreme Court. Here’s an inside look at the justices.
Protasiewicz would ‘enjoy taking a fresh look’ at Wisconsin voting maps | Government | captimes.com
Gov. Evers signs 2023-25 budget with 50 partial vetoes