Wisconsin's $4.6 Billion Surplus is Under Threat by Liberal Supreme Court

Wisconsin's constitution, already under assault by Democrat Gov. Tony Evers, may be further eroded by the state Supreme Court's liberal majority—and it could cost taxpayers billions of dollars.

The state entered 2025 with a $4.6 billion budget surplus, money that legislative Republicans want to return to Wisconsinites with a tax relief provision in their 2025-27 budget proposal. Budget season, when the legislature negotiates the next biannual budget, starts this month. The legislature must balance the budget, according to the state constitution.

Susan Crawford, Democrat-endorsed candidate for Supreme Court on April 1

There's just one problem in their way: Evers' creative veto pen.

Since 1930, Wisconsin is the only state where governors can partially veto spending bills—also called a "Frankenstein veto"—by selectively deleting words, numbers, and even punctuation from proposed legislation, effectively rewriting a bill without the legislature's approval.

Evers used this power during the last budget battle to extend the expiration of an annual $325 school revenue limit increase by 400 years—from 2025 to 2425, slashing two digits and a dash to completely transform the bill's scope. That's four centuries of funding increases that can't be undone without legislative or court action.

The partial veto is far more expansive and constitutionally dangerous than other states' line-item veto, which is why voters approved a 1990 amendment blocking governors from "creat[ing] a new word by rejecting individual letters in the words of the enrolled bill."

When that proved insufficient, the Wisconsin Supreme Court tried to rein it in to safeguard the state constitution's separation of powers—with the conservative-controlled court declaring three of Evers' edits unconstitutional in 2020 (Bartlett v. Evers). Then liberals—aided by a tidal wave of out-of-state dark money—elected Janet Protasiewicz, flipping the court majority to the Left and opening the gates for Democrat-friendly rulings.

Now Wisconsin Republicans worry that any budget they submit will be substantially rewritten by Evers—hiking costs to families and rewarding his allies on the radical Left.

Everything depends on a lawsuit that went before the high court in October challenging the school revenue alteration as unconstitutional for creating a new word. Arguments by liberal justices suggest they'll side with Evers and preserve the expansive partial veto, while conservative Justice Hagedorn called it "crazy."

If the veto stands, Republicans expect Evers to go hog wild on the budget.

The Democrat Governor plans to raise spending by 20%, or close to $119 billion, over the next two years. His budget proposal would create $1.3 billion in new taxes and repeal Wisconsin's right to work law, reestablish a prevailing wage law, mandate 8 weeks of paid family leave, and add "gender identity and expression" to non-discrimination laws—enabling a legal assault on Christian employers by transgender employees.

The Supreme Court isn't expected to reach a verdict before April 1, when voters will elect either Republican former Attorney General Brad Schimel or radical leftist Susan Crawford to the open court seat. But the winner of that race will likely rule on future partial veto cases—putting billions of dollars and the fate of Wisconsin's $4.6 billion surplus on the line.

If no budget is submitted by July 1, however, the state will fall back on the 2023-25 budget, threatening services and blocking tax relief for Wisconsin taxpayers.

(READ MORE: Soft-On-Crime Susan Crawford Reduces Sentence for Convicted Bomb Maker)