SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 15
(By Senators Sharpe, Craigo, Bailey, Love, Prezioso,
Boley, Dugan, Minear, McKenzie and Sprouse)
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[Originating in the Committee on Finance;
reported February 27, 1998.]
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Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the State of West
Virginia, amending section fifty-one, article six thereof,
relating to the judiciary; budget and 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. 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, 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 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 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 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 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 term of office: Provided, 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 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 Bill.
(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 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 further period as may, in his 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 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 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 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 money. After such public hearings he may, in his 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 may disapprove or
reduce items or parts of items contained therein. If he approves he 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 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 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 a law in like
manner as if he 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 held invalid upon any ground, such invalidity shall not affect the legality of the bill or of any other item of such bill or bills.
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Further Resolved, 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 "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."