At issue is whether Schweitzer's line-item vetoes of their Treasure State Endowment Program projects in House Bill 351 is constitutional.
The local governments argued that state law "does not provide the governor with authority to strike out the projects approved by the Legislature in HB351 to receive TSEP grants and declaring such strike outs void and otherwise without effect."
They contended that the approved projects are not items in an appropriations bill and therefore aren't subject to the governor's veto power. Instead, the various items in HB351 were approved by the Legislature in priority order as a condition of how the money appropriated to TSEP is to be used.
In response, Schweitzer's spokeswoman, Sarah Elliott, said, "The Montana Constitution grants the governor the authority to veto items in appropriation bills."
The constitution grants the governor the authority to "veto items in appropriations bills, and in such instances the procedure shall be the same as upon veto of an entire bill."
"It is ironic that local governments are suing us to spend more money against the advice of their own local legislator," Elliott said. "The governor remains committed to being fiscally prudent with taxpayers' money."
The local governments called their stricken public works proposals "high-priority projects" recommended to the Legislature for approval by the Commerce Department. The grants are needed to address "urgent and serious public health or safety problems," they said.
Read more: http://missoulian.com/news/state-and-regional/article_f91eef84-de58-11e0-b544-001cc4c03286.html#ixzz1XtiWEBI3
