Opinion ID: 2631894
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The mayor has item veto power over the total amount of the school budget.

Text: We have thus concluded that the language of subsection 5.02(c) granting the mayor or line item veto power encompasses the school budget ordinances. But as Long recognizes, giving the mayor line item veto power over a school district budget ordinance is potentially problematic because the assembly's school budget ordinance only addresses the total amount of the budget. The ordinance does not list the individual proposed expenditures that make up the total proposed school district budget or local source appropriation. The mayor's veto messages characterized his 1995 and 1997 vetoes as line item vetoes. Perhaps the mayor felt he was exercising a line item veto because he was not vetoing the entire school budget ordinance, but was only reducing its total amount. [54] In this sense, the mayor exercised an item veto over a single-item appropriation. Is a single-item appropriation an item for purposes of the item veto? The item veto historically originated as a reform measure conceived in part to prevent legislators from logrolling when enacting appropriations bills which necessarily address many subjects and need not be confined to a single subject. [55] The item veto therefore typically addresses appropriations containing numerous items. [56] But another historical purpose was to give the executive branch some ability to reduce a legislature's excessive appropriations [57] a purpose still recognized as valid. [58] Thus, the fact that the assembly's school district budget ordinance only specifies the total amount, and lists no component items, does not mean that the total amount is not an item. The ordinance appropriates a sum of money dedicated to a particular purpose. [59] We therefore hold that the charter grants the mayor the power to veto the entire school district budget ordinance, or to exercise an item veto and reduce the total amount of the budget ordinance and the total amount of the local source appropriation.