SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 7
(By Senator Sharpe)
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[Introduced February 9, 2005; referred to the Committee on
Finance.]
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Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the State of West
Virginia, amending section 51, article VI thereof, relating to
the judiciary; budget and supplementary appropriation bills;
authority of the Legislature to increase or diminish the
judiciary budget; numbering and designating the proposed
amendment; and providing a summarized statement of the purpose
of such proposed amendment.
Resolved by the Legislature of West Virginia, two thirds of
the members elected to each house agreeing thereto:
That the question of ratification or rejection of an amendment
to the Constitution of the State of West Virginia be submitted to
the voters of the State at the next general election to be held in
the year two thousand six, which proposed amendment is that Section
51, Article VI thereof, be amended to read as follows:
ARTICLE VI. LEGISLATURE.
§51. Budget and supplementary appropriation bills.
The Legislature shall may not appropriate any money out of the
Treasury except in accordance with the provisions of this section.
Subsection A--Appropriation Bills
(1) Every appropriation bill shall be either a budget bill or
a supplementary appropriation bill, as hereinafter provided.
Subsection B--Budget Bills
(2) Within ten days after the convening of the regular session
of the Legislature in odd-numbered years, unless
such the time
shall be is extended by the Legislature, and on the second
Wednesday of January in even-numbered years, the Governor shall
submit to the Legislature a budget for the next ensuing fiscal
year. The budget shall contain a complete plan of proposed
expenditures and estimated revenues for the fiscal year and shall
show the estimated surplus or deficit of revenues at the end of
each fiscal year. Accompanying each budget shall be a statement
showing: (a) An estimate of the revenues and expenditures for the
current fiscal year, including the actual revenues and actual
expenditures to the extent available, and the revenues and
expenditures for the next preceding fiscal year; (b) the current
assets, liabilities, reserves and surplus or deficit of the State;
(c) the debts and funds of the State; (d) an estimate of the
State's financial condition as of the beginning and end of the fiscal year covered by the budget; and (e) any explanation the
Governor may desire to make as to the important features of the
budget and any suggestions as to methods for reduction or increase
of the state's revenue.
(3) Each budget shall embrace an itemized estimate of the
appropriations, in
such a form and detail as the Governor shall
determine or as may be prescribed by law: (a) For the Legislature
as certified to the Governor in the manner hereinafter provided;
(b) for the executive department; (c) for the judiciary department,
as provided by law, certified to the Governor by the Auditor; (d)
for payment and discharge of the principal and interest of any debt
of the State created in conformity with the Constitution, and all
laws enacted in pursuance thereof; (e) for the salaries payable by
the State under the Constitution and laws of the State; and (f) for
such any other purposes as are set forth in the Constitution and in
laws made in pursuance thereof.
(4) The Governor shall deliver to the presiding officer of
each House the budget and a bill for all the proposed
appropriations of the budget clearly itemized and classified, in
such a form and detail as the Governor shall determine or as may be
prescribed by law; and the presiding officer of each House shall
promptly cause the bill to be introduced therein, and such bill
shall be known as the "Budget Bill". The Governor may, with the
consent of the Legislature, before final action thereon by the Legislature, amend or supplement the budget to correct an
oversight, or to provide funds contingent on passage of pending
legislation, and in case of an emergency, he
or she may deliver
such an the amendment or supplement to the presiding officers of
both Houses; and the amendment or supplement shall thereby become
a part of the budget bill as an addition to the items of the bill
or as a modification of or a substitute for any item of the bill
the amendment or supplement may affect.
(5) The Legislature
shall may not amend the budget bill so as
to create a deficit but may amend the bill by increasing or
decreasing any item therein:
Provided, That
no item relating to
the judiciary shall be decreased, and except as otherwise provided
in this Constitution, the salary or compensation of any public
officer
shall may not be increased or decreased during his
or her
term of office:
Provided, further however, That the Legislature
shall may not increase the estimate of revenue submitted in the
budget without the approval of the Governor.
(6) The Governor and
such the Representatives of the Executive
Departments, Boards, Officers and Commissions of the state
expending or applying for state moneys as have been designated by
the Governor for this purpose,
shall have the right, and when
requested by either House of the Legislature it
shall be is their
duty to appear and be heard with respect to any budget bill, and to
answer inquiries relative thereto.
Subsection C--Supplementary Appropriation Bills
(7) Neither House shall consider other appropriations until
the budget bill has been finally acted upon by both Houses, and no
such other appropriations
shall be are valid except in accordance
with the provisions following: (a) Every such appropriation shall
be embodied in a separate bill limited to some single work, object
or purpose therein stated and called therein a supplementary
appropriation bill; (b) each supplementary appropriation bill shall
provide the revenue necessary to pay the appropriation thereby made
by a tax, direct or indirect, to be laid and collected as
shall be
is directed in the bill unless it appears from
such the budget that
there is sufficient revenue available.
Subsection D--General Provisions
(8) If the budget bill
shall has not
have been finally acted
upon by the Legislature three days before the expiration of its
regular session, the Governor shall issue a proclamation extending
the session for such further period as may, in his
or her judgment,
be necessary for the passage of the bill; but no matter other than
the bill shall be considered during such an extension of a session
except a provision for the cost thereof.
(9) For the purpose of making up the budget, the Governor
shall have has the power, and it
shall be is his
or her duty, to
require from the proper state officials, including herein all
executive departments, all executive and administrative officers, bureaus, boards, commissions and agencies expending or supervising
the expenditure of, and all institutions applying for state moneys
and appropriations, such itemized estimates and other information,
in such form and at such times as he
or she shall direct. The
estimates for the legislative department, certified by the
presiding officer of each House, and for the Judiciary, as provided
by law, certified by the Auditor, shall be transmitted to the
Governor in such form and at such times as he
or she shall direct,
and shall be included in the budget.
(10) The Governor may provide for public hearings on all
estimates and may require the attendance at
such these hearings of
representatives of all agencies and all institutions applying for
state money. After
such these public hearings he
or she may, in
his
or her discretion, revise all estimates except those for the
legislative and judiciary departments.
(11) Every budget bill or supplementary appropriation bill
passed by a majority of the members elected to each House of the
Legislature shall, before it becomes a law, be presented to the
Governor. The Governor may veto the bill, or he
or she may
disapprove or reduce items or parts of items contained therein. If
he
or she approves he
or she shall sign it and thereupon it shall
become a law. The bill, items or parts thereof, disapproved or
reduced by the Governor, shall be returned with his
or her
objections to each House of the Legislature.
Each House shall enter the objections at large upon its
journal and proceed to reconsider. If, after reconsideration, two
thirds of the members elected to each House agree to pass the bill,
or such items or parts thereof, as were disapproved or reduced, the
bill, items or parts thereof, approved by two thirds of
such the
members, shall become law, notwithstanding the objections of the
Governor. In all
such these cases, the vote of each House
shall be
is determined by yeas and nays to be entered on the journal.
A bill, item or part thereof, which is not returned by the
Governor within five days (Sundays excepted) after the bill has
been presented to him
or her shall become a law in like manner as
if he
or she had signed the bill, unless the Legislature, by
adjournment, prevents such return, in which case it shall be filed
in the office of the Secretary of State, within five days after
such adjournment, and shall become a law; or it shall be so filed
within such five days with the objections of the Governor, in which
case it shall become law to the extent not disapproved by the
Governor.
(12) The Legislature may, from time to time, enact
such laws,
not inconsistent with this section, as may be necessary and proper
to carry out its provisions.
(13) In the event of any inconsistency between any of the
provisions of this section and any of the other provisions of the
Constitution, the provisions of this section shall prevail. But nothing herein shall be construed as preventing the Governor from
calling extraordinary sessions of the Legislature, as provided by
section nineteen of this article, or as preventing the Legislature
at
such extraordinary sessions from considering any emergency
appropriation or appropriations.
(14) If any item of any appropriation bill passed under the
provisions of this section
shall be is held invalid upon any
ground,
such the invalidity
shall may not affect the legality of
the bill or of any other item of
such the bill or bills.
Resolved further
, That in accordance with the provisions of
article 11, chapter three of the code of West Virginia, 1931, as
amended, such proposed amendment is hereby numbered "Amendment No.
1" and designated as the "Judiciary Budget Amendment" and the
purpose of the proposed amendment is summarized as follows: "To
place control of the budget of the Supreme Court of Appeals in the
Legislature."
NOTE: The purpose of the proposed amendment is to place
control of the budget of the Supreme Court of Appeals in the
Legislature.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present Constitution, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.