No House Session, But Line-Item Veto Makes News

If folks were expecting August to be a quiet month with the Senate and House still on vacation, it hasn’t started off that way.

Several of the principals involved in reviewing the constitutionality of Gov. Corbett’s line-item veto of “legislative initiatives” (read WAMS) in the Fiscal Code bill passed with the budget fired shots at each other this week.

Steve MacNett, hired by Senate Republicans to review the potential for filing a lawsuit against Corbett for the vetoes, said an interview with PLS, “If a governor has the authority to blue-line language like this, what are the limits on his blue-line authority. [There is a] real concern—that if this is left unchecked—that the ability of the General Assembly as the policy arm of the Commonwealth’s government could be severely handicapped.” 

Meanwhile State Treasurer Rob McCord’s top lawyer Christopher Craig wrote to the Governor’s Chief Counsel August 6 saying McCord “possesses serious reservations concerning the partial veto of substantive language” in the Fiscal Code bill calling the Governor’s action a “purported veto.”   The letter asked the Governor’s lawyer to weigh in on the legalities of the issue.

In an August 4 letter to McCord, the Governor’s Chief Counsel James Schultz cited recent case law supporting Gov. Corbett’s vetoes.

It now seems more than likely this issue will end up in a court challenge.


8/11/2014

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