SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 4
(By Senators Sharpe and Oliverio)
[Introduced January 14, 1999; referred to the Committee on the Judiciary; and then to the Committee on Finance.]
Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the State of West
Virginia, amending section fifty-one, article VI thereof,
relating to the judiciary; authorizing 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 two thousand, 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 the governor 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 the
officer's 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 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 the
governor's 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 the duty of the
governor, 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 the governor 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 the governor 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 the governor 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 approve the bill, veto the bill, or
he may disapprove or reduce items or parts of items contained
therein. If he approves he the bill is approved the governor 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 the governor's 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 or her 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.
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 "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 this joint resolution 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.)