Evers Calls for the Budget
By Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance staff | June 28, 2019
From WisPolitics.com …
An hour after Tony Evers called for lawmakers to send him the budget, Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald said the “worst thing, I think, in the world” would be if the guv vetoed the entire thing.
GOP lawmakers yesterday touted their version of the budget in a pair of news conferences, arguing it delivered on the guv’s priorities but in a more measured way.
Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, said he expected some partial vetoes. But he and fellow GOP lawmakers issued a warning to the guv if he vetoed the entire budget — something that hasn’t happened since the state went to its current appropriation process in 1931. Doing so, they argued, would threaten the additional funding they approved for K-12 education, higher wages for prison guards and more money for the justice system, among other things.
“My word to him is sign the bill, because your schools and especially our children in the state of Wisconsin are depending on it,” added Sen. Luther Olsen, a member of the Finance Committee and chair of the Education Committee.
Ahead of the GOP news conferences, Evers tweeted that he had called for the Assembly to send him the budget once it is enrolled. Senate President Roger Roth, R-Appleton, signed the budget today, while Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, is expected to do so tomorrow. Both have to happen before the budget can be sent to Evers.
Once he receives it, Evers will have to act within six days, not including Sundays. Leg Council said that deadline isn’t impacted by the July 4 holiday, meaning Evers will have to act on the document by July 5 if he receives it today.
His office has said repeatedly in recent weeks he will wait to see the final language that emerges from the Legislature before making a decision.
Wednesday night, Evers vowed via Twitter “that the will of the people is the law of the land, and that’s what will be on my mind as I review the Legislature’s changes to our budget.”
Yesterday he followed, “I’m ready for the legislature to send me the budget. This morning I called for the Assembly to send me the biennial budget bill as soon as it is enrolled.”
Fitzgerald said he has pressed the guv in each of their meetings not to veto the entire document.
“At the end of the day it’s going to be very difficult to pull this back together and pull this process back together to kind of build something that he would find acceptable,” Fitzgerald said.
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Notes on Budget Process
By Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance staff | June 27, 2019
From The Wheeler Report . . .
The budget has passed both houses of the legislature and is ready to be enrolled. It is expected that enrollment will be done quickly with the possibility of the leadership of both houses signing the bill cover on Friday. It is expected that Speaker Vos will direct the Assembly Chief Clerks office to deliver the budget to the Governor per Assembly Rule 23(4). If the budget is delivered to the Governor and the Legislature does not wait for the bill to be called for by the Governor, it will be the first time that has occurred. The Speaker’s office has directed the Chief Clerk to deliver bills to the Governor before, but never the budget. If delivered to the Governor on Friday, the 6 day clock will begin on Saturday, meaning the Governor would have until Friday, July 5 to act.
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Evers Still Silent on Budget Intentions
By Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance staff | June 27, 2019
From WisPolitics.com …
Gov. Tony Evers is still not saying how he intends to act on a two-year spending plan after the state Senate and Assembly voted to pass the GOP-backed budget in consecutive days.
In a series of tweets shortly after the Senate signed off on the Republican spending plan yesterday, the guv thanked “the thousands of Wisconsinites” who provided feedback to lawmakers throughout the budget process.
“I’ve said all along that the will of the people is the law of the land, and that’s what will be on my mind as I review the Legislature’s changes to our budget,” he tweeted.
Evers previously indicated he would not make a decision on how to use his partial or full veto authority on the state budget until lawmakers present him with a finalized version.
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Assembly Approves Budget: On to the Senate
By Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance staff | June 26, 2019
From WisPolitics.com…
The state Assembly late Tuesday approved the GOP’s version of the state budget 60-39, sending the document to the Senate.
Three Republicans joined all Assembly Dems in opposing the bill.
The GOP no votes were: Janel Brandtjen, of Menomonee Falls; Rick Gundrum, of Slinger; and Tim Ramthun, of Campbellsport.
See more from WisPolitics on the budget debate here.
See Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Coverage here.
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Supreme Court Finds DPI Subject to GOP Laws on Administrative Rules
By Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance staff | June 25, 2019
The State Supreme Court issued its ruling today in Koschkee v. Taylor. It requires DPI to go through the same processes for the enactment of administrative rules (including governor approval) as other state agencies, despite the fact that the State Superintendent of Public Instruction is a constitutional official, and despite at least two prior Supreme Court decisions that held such a requirement is unconstitutional. SAA and WASB together submitted an amicus brief (written by Boardman Clark) in support of the position that the State Superintendent should not be subject to such legislative processes. See the coverage from WisPolitics below.
From WisPolitics.com …
Three years after ruling the Department of Public Instruction doesn’t have to submit proposed administrative rules to the guv for review, the state Supreme Court reversed course today and found the agency is subject to the requirement just like any other agency.
In a 4-2 decision, the court overturned that 2016 ruling. In doing so, the conservative majority found the Wisconsin Constitution gives the state superintendent the power to supervise public instruction.
But the Legislature grants the superintendent and DPI the power to promulgate rules. Therefore, the court ruled, lawmakers can set limits on that power.
“That the SPI also has the executive constitutional function to supervise public instruction does not transform the SPI’s legislatively delegated rulemaking power into a constitutional supervisory function,” Chief Justice Pat Roggensack wrote in the majority opinion that was joined by her fellow three conservatives.
In 2011, Republicans approved a change in the rule-making process that required agencies to first submit a scope statement on proposed rules to the guv for approval. Those statements describe the rule and its objectives, among other things. The law also required final drafts of rules to be again submitted to the guv for review before they could be sent to the full Legislature.
In 2016, the court ruled DPI wasn’t subject to that law because it inappropriately gave the guv supervision of public instruction, a power granted the state superintendent in the constitution.
The following year, Republicans pushed through the REINS Act, which added new requirements such as scope statements being submitted to the Department of Administration for review with the agency making a nonbinding recommendation to the guv.
The conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty went back to the court after the 2017 law took effect seeking an order to force DPI to comply with the law. The agency countered it wasn’t subject to the law due to the 2016 decision.
But that 2016 ruling included a lead opinion from one justice, a two-justice concurrence and a second concurrence from a fourth justice. Today’s majority noted they only agreed on the outcome.
Writing for the minority, Justice Ann Walsh Bradley slammed the court’s majority for doing an “about-face” on its 2016 decision.
“Although nothing in our Constitution has changed since Coyne was decided, what has changed is the membership of the court,” she wrote.
In order to reach its conclusion, Bradley added, the majority “throws … out the window” the doctrine of stare decisis, in which the court follows previous decisions when the same points arise in litigation.
Fellow liberal Justice Rebecca Dallet joined Bradley in her dissent.
Conservatives Rebecca Bradley and Daniel Kelly filed concurring opinions, while liberal Shirley Abrahamson withdrew from participation in the case.
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