MADISON (WKOW) -- Gov. Tony Evers announced Tuesday that he's suing Republicans in the Wisconsin State Legislature for withholding pay raises for about 35,000 Universities of Wisconsin employees.
Evers claims Republicans violated the Wisconsin Constitution and intruded into executive powers.
The pay raises were already approved in the budget 2023-25 biennial budget that the governor signed in July.
The lawsuit was filed Tuesday at the request of the governor by Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul.
The lawsuit states Republicans unlawfully blocked already-approved pay raises, conservation projects under the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program and updates to the state's commercial building standards and ethics standards for certain licensed professionals.
“Republican legislators are unconstitutionally obstructing basic functions of government—actions that have not only aimed to prevent state government from efficiently and effectively serving the people of our state but are now actively harming tens of thousands of Wisconsinites every day across our state,” said Evers in a statement. “I’m a born-and-raised Wisconsinite, and what I know for certain is that Wisconsinites expect elected officials to govern, they expect us to get things done, and they expect their government to work and work for them—and certainly not against them. I promised the people of our state that I would always work to get things done, and I’d always try to do the right thing, and today, I’m doing both by insisting we follow our state’s constitution.”
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