MADISON, WI (WSAU) – The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Evers Administration on Friday morning, allowing schools to increase student spending every year for the next four hundred years.
In a 4-3 decision, the court dismissed a challenge to Evers’ veto, holding that governors in Wisconsin are permitted to strike digits to create new numbers under the Wisconsin Constitution. Along with fellow liberals Janet Protasiewicz, Rebecca Dallet, and Ann Walsh Bradley, Justice Jill Karofsky authored the majority opinion, concluding that the veto was legitimate.
According to the budget that lawmakers forwarded to Evers, each student would receive a raise of $325 annually in 2023–2024 and 2024–2025. For “2024-25,” Evers omitted the “20” and a dash from the reference. As a result, the end date was modified to “2425.”
In his dissenting opinion, conservative Justice Brian Hagedorn criticized the majority decision, stating that it cannot be supported “under any reasonable reading of the Wisconsin Constitution. When given a clear opportunity in this case to reboot our mangled jurisprudence, the majority responds by blessing this constitutional monstrosity, all the while pretending its hands are tied.”
A financial study conducted by the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty estimates that the combined increase in property taxes and state aid over these 20 years will be about $57 billion more than current base spending, meaning that by 2043, Wisconsin taxpayers will have to contribute nearly $5 billion annually to K–12 public education. According to the study, public education spending would have climbed by around $130,000 per student by 2070 as a result of Governor Evers’ veto.
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