Opinion ID: 4299313
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: IT Project Veto

Text: [¶35] Senate Bill 2013, § 12, provides: SECTION 12. INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY PROJECT - BUDGET SECTION APPROVAL - LEGISLATIVE INTENT - AGENCY EFFICIENCIES. The capital assets line item and the total special funds line item in section 1 of this Act include $3,600,000 from the state lands maintenance fund for an information technology project. Of the $3,600,000, $1,800,000 may be spent only upon approval of the budget section . It is the intent of the sixty-fifth legislative assembly that during the 2017-18 interim, the governor and the commissioner of university and school lands achieve efficiencies and budgetary savings within the department of trust lands through the use of innovative ideas and through alternative solutions relating to information technology. S.B. 2013, § 12, 65th Legis. Assemb., Reg. Sess. (N.D. 2017) (emphasis added). The Governor vetoed the language “Of the $3,600,000, $1,800,000 may be spent only upon approval of the budget section.” 2017 N.D. Sess. Laws ch. 450. [¶36] The Legislative Assembly argues that the Governor vetoed a condition on the appropriation of $3.6 million for an information technology project. The Governor concedes that the IT Project Veto is ineffective. For the reasons discussed in section III(C), the Governor’s concession is of no effect. The veto did not strike an item of appropriation. Because Section 12, Senate Bill 2013, conditions half of the $3.6 million appropriation on the approval of the Budget Section, and Governor Burgum did not veto the appropriation itself, the IT Project Veto was unauthorized. The veto is ineffective.