WEST virginia legislature
2018 regular session
Engrossed
Committee Substitute
for
Committee Substitute
for
Senate Joint Resolution 3
By Senators Boso and Cline
[Originating in the Committee on Finance; Reported on February 12, 2018]
Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the State of West Virginia, amending section 51, article VI thereof, relating to the authority of the Legislature with regard to the state budget; giving the Legislature the authority to reduce items in the budget relating to the judiciary; providing that the Legislature may not make any law that conditions an increase or decrease of an item relating to the judiciary upon a particular ruling, order, or decision of a court of this state; amending obsolete language regarding when the Governor shall submit the budget to the Legislature and matters that may be considered during an extended session, to accurately reflect current constitutional requirements; making numerous technical corrections; numbering and designating such 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 2018, which proposed amendment is that section 51, article VI thereof be amended to read as follows:
ARTICLE VI.
§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 time shall be extended by the Legislature, On the second Wednesday of February in the year 2021
and every fourth year thereafter and
on the second Wednesday of January in even‑numbered all other
years, unless a later time in any year
be fixed by the Legislature, 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 the 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 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 the 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 the 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 becomes 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, Provided, That
the Legislature may not make any law that conditions the increase or decrease
of an item relating to the judiciary upon a particular ruling, order, or decision
of a court of this state 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,
however, That the Legislature shall may not increase the
estimate of revenue submitted in the budget without the approval of the
Governor.
(6) The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of
Appeals and the Governor and such 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 may, 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 in the bill and called a supplementary
appropriation bill; and (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 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 not have has
not 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 an additional period as
may, in his or her judgment, be necessary for the passage of the bill;
but no matter other than the bill shall may be considered during
such an extension of a session except the matters detailed in section 14,
article VII of this Constitution and a provision for the cost thereof of
the session.
(9) For the purpose of making up the proposed
budget, the Governor shall have the power and it shall be his 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 the form and at such times
as he shall direct or she directs. 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 the form and at such times
as he shall direct the time he or she directs and shall be included
in the proposed budget.
(10) The Governor may provide for public hearings on
all estimates and may require the attendance at such hearings of
representatives of all agencies and all institutions applying for state moneys at
the hearings. After such the public hearings he the
Governor 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 the Governor approves,
he or she shall sign it and thereupon upon signing it, shall
become the bill becomes 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 the
items or parts thereof, as were disapproved or reduced, the bill, items or
parts thereof, approved by two thirds of such members, shall become law,
notwithstanding the objections of the Governor. In all such cases, the vote of
each house shall be 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 shall become or her becomes a law in like
manner as if he or she had signed the bill, unless the Legislature,
by adjournment, prevents such the return, in which case it shall
be filed in the office of the Secretary of State, within five days after such
the adjournment, and shall become becomes a law; or it
shall be so filed the Governor may file the bill within such
five days (Sundays excepted) with the his or her
objections, of the governor in which case it shall become the
bill becomes 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 it considers
necessary and proper to carry out it’s the provisions of this
section.
(13) In the event of any an
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
However, this section does not prevent the Governor from calling
extraordinary sessions of the Legislature, as provided by section nineteen of
this article, or as preventing nor prevents the Legislature at such
extraordinary sessions from considering any an emergency
appropriation or appropriations.
(14) If any an item of any an
appropriation bill passed under the provisions of this section shall be is
held invalid upon any ground, such the invalidity shall does
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 eleven, chapter three of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, such amendment is hereby numbered “Amendment No. 1” and designated as the “Judicial Budget Oversight Amendment” and the purpose of the proposed amendment is summarized as follows: “Giving the Legislature the authority to reduce items in the budget related to the judiciary and preventing the Legislature from making any law that conditions the increase or decrease of items related to the judiciary on a ruling, order, or decision of a court.”