SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 9
(By Senator Sprouse)
[Introduced January 21, 1998; referred to the
Committee on Finance.]
Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the State of West
Virginia, amending section fifty-one, article six thereof,
relating to the Legislature; requiring the governor to
submit to the Legislature a biennial budget beginning in the
year one thousand nine hundred ninety-nine; 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 one thousand nine hundred ninety-eight,
which proposed amendment is that section fifty-one, article six
thereof, be amended to read as follows:
ARTICLE VI. THE LEGISLATURE.
§51. Budget and supplementary appropriation bills.
The Legislature shall 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, and on the second
Wednesday of January in even-numbered years, beginning with the
regular session of the Legislature in the year one thousand nine
hundred ninety-nine, the governor shall submit to the Legislature
a budget for the next
two ensuing fiscal
year years. The budget
shall contain a complete plan of proposed expenditures and
estimated revenues for the
fiscal year next two ensuing fiscal
years 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
two fiscal
year years covered by the budget; (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; (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
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 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 those 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 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 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 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 may 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 a 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 the power, and it shall be 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 the 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 hearings of
representatives of all agencies and all institutions applying for
state moneys. After such 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 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
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 the 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 held invalid upon any ground,
such invalidity shall 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, one
thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, such proposed
amendment is hereby numbered "Amendment No. 1" and designated as the "Two-year Budget Process Amendment" and the purpose of the
proposed amendment is summarized as follows: "The purpose of
this amendment is to require the governor to present biennial
budgets to the Legislature beginning with the January, 1999,
regular session of the Legislature."
NOTE: The purpose of this Joint Resolution is to propose an
amendment to the State Constitution requiring the governor to
present biennial budgets to the Legislature beginning with the
January, 1999 regular session of the Legislature.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present constitution, and underscoring indicates new
language that would be added.