HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 6
(By Delegates Seacrist, Doyle,
Manuel, Kelley and Hunt)
(Introduced January 14, 1998; referred to the
Committee on Constitutional Revision.)
Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the State of West
Virginia, amending section fifty-one, article six thereof,
relating to the judiciary; supplementary appropriation
bills; authority of the Legislature to increase or diminish
the judiciary budget; 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 the
time shall be 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; (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, with separate estimates for the supreme
court of appeals, the circuit courts, the magistrate courts,
other inferior courts as may be created, court administration and
for any other purpose for which appropriations are made in the
budget, 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
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 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 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 not be increased or decreased during his or
her term of office: Provided, further however, That the
Legislature shall 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. Either
house of the Legislature shall have the right to require the
chief justice of the supreme court of appeals and representatives
of the judiciary department, to appear and be heard with respect
to any requested appropriations of state moneys 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 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 the
form and at such the
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 the
form and at such the
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 the
hearings of
representatives of all agencies and all institutions applying for
state moneys. After such the
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 the
items or parts thereof, as were disapproved or
reduced, the bills, 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 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 the
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 the
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 the
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 and the Judiciary
Department in the Legislature."
NOTE: This purpose of this joint resolution is to empower
the Legislature to decrease items in the budget proposal of the
judiciary department. This would amend the State Constitution to
return to the Legislature control over the budget of the Supreme
Court of Appeals and the judiciary.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present Constitution, and underscoring indicates new
language that would be added.