Evers Bypasses GOP-Led Committee To Implement Pay Raises For State Workers
Evers administration says Supreme Court ruling means he can skip final approval for already funded action.
Gov. Tony Evers arrives to deliver the State of the State address Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025, at the Wisconsin State Capitol in Madison, Wis. Angela Major/WPR
Gov. Tony Evers’ administration says a 2024 Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling allows him to issue state employee pay raises included in the state budget without getting approval from a legislative committee. It marks a major shift in how the governor and Wisconsin Legislature approve compensation.
In an email to state employees, Evers said state workers will see a 3% raise in 2025 as of Aug. 10 and another 2% increase in 2026. The raises were included in the 2025-27 state budget passed by Republicans and Democrats and signed by Evers on July 3.
Evers said work on the state’s overall compensation plan continues “but it was important to me that state workers receive this wage adjustment as soon as possible.”
For decades, the administration needed to get final approval from the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Employee Relations, or JCOER, before money for raises included in the state budget could go out. But an Aug. 7 memo from the Department of Administration’s Division of Personnel Management claims a Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling last year clarified state law and allowed Evers to bypass the committee.
A spokesperson for the administration said the court’s 2024 ruling in a lawsuit means the budget’s passage into law effectively puts pay raises into effect and that the administration does not need to go back to a legislative committee for further approvals.
Spokespeople for state Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, and state Senate President Mary Felzkowski, R-Tomahawk, did not respond to a request for comment on Evers’ action. Vos and Felzkowski chair the JCOER.
The Supreme Court ruling cited by the Evers administration was the latest turn in a power struggle between the Democratic governor and Republican-led Legislature dating back to Evers’ election in 2018.
The 2023 lawsuit claimed the GOP-controlled employee relations committee and two others were violating the separation of powers laid out in the Wisconsin Constitution by using “legislative vetoes” to block land conservation purchases and pay raises included in that year’s state budget, along with agency rule changes.
Evers’ legal claim on raises was tied to Vos following through on a promise in 2023 to use the employee relations committee to block pay increases for around 34,000 employees of the University of Wisconsin until state campuses eliminated all of their diversity, equity and inclusion positions. Later that year, Vos and the UW Board of Regents struck a deal to release the funding for pay increases in exchange for new limits on DEI hiring through 2026.
But ultimately, the Supreme Court never ruled on the governor’s claim about pay raises. Justices dismissed that part of the lawsuit.
In July 2024, justices did find that the GOP-controlled Joint Finance Committee overstepped its authority by blocking already approved land purchases through the Knowles Nelson Stewardship Program. This year, the court also ruled the Republican-controlled Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rules went too far by indefinitely blocking an agency rule that forbade state-licensed social workers from practicing conversion therapy.
Editor’s note: WPR is a service of UW-Madison and its staff are state employees.
Evers bypasses GOP-led committee to implement pay raises for state workers was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.
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