By Associated Press
Montgomery AL – Gov. Bob Riley signed a $2 billion General Fund budget that will fund most non-education state agencies for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, but he used a line-item veto that would have protected some agencies from budget cuts.
The governor signed the budget into law in the closing moments of the 2008 regular session of the Legislature on Monday night. House Speaker Seth Hammett said lawmakers did not have time to vote on whether to override the veto.
The governor's action could mean that some state agencies, like prisons, will be receiving more money than expected. The language vetoed in the spending plan would have assured the six social service agencies of full funding, said Joyce Bigbee, director of the Legislature's budget office. For other agencies, some of their funding would have been conditional, depending on how much revenue was available to fund the budget.
The budget appropriated money in tiers, meaning some agencies would only receive the full amount if there was enough revenue available.
For example, the full appropriation in the budget for the Department of Corrections is more than $353 million, but under the tiered approach, prisons would have received a reduction of more than $64 million unless the full amount was available.
The General Fund sponsor, Rep. John Knight, D-Montgomery, said because of Riley's line item veto all agencies will receive the full appropriation.
Riley's deputy press secretary, Todd Stacy, said the governor read the language setting up the tiered system to mean the budget would be in proration, a legal process that kicks in when there is not enough funding to pay for a budget. Knight said the language in the budget is does not refer to proration, but is simply conditional appropriations, a process frequently used in budgets.
Riley said Tuesday that his line-item veto took out language saying several social service agencies couldn't be cut if state revenue didn't equal appropriations. "The constitution says you can't do that," he said.
Riley said the constitution requires the governor to cut spending by all agencies equally when revenue doesn't match appropriations. "I can't in good conscious sign something that's unconstitutional," he said.
Hammett said the governor's veto would not change the bottom line of the budget or alter how much money agencies receive, unless there is proration. "I can't figure out why he felt he needed the line-item veto," the speaker said.
Knight also said he didn't believe the line-item veto was necessary.
"We feel comfortable that what was done was proper. There was no constitutional issue there," Knight said.
The budget signed by the governor funds a 3.5 percent pay raise for state employees.