Opinion ID: 2390138
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Senate Bill 996 The Amendment to the Appropriations Act

Text: On June 29, 1992, the Legislature approved an amendment to the Appropriations Act. Senate Bill 996 amended section 38 to add communications operators, security guards, alcoholic beverage control inspectors, and marine police officers to the list of employees who could not be laid off. Senate Bill 996 also deleted the discretionary whenever possible language of section 38 and replaced it with the following mandatory language: Savings required to be realized through the reduction of personnel shall be made by the reduction of managerial and other exempt personnel outside the collective negotiations units in the unclassified service, and then, if necessary, by the reduction of managerial and other exempt personnel outside the collective negotiations units in the career service. As used in this section, managerial and other exempt personnel means employees assigned to employee relations groupings X, M, D, E, V, Z, Y and W. [S. 996, § 1.] The employee-relations groupings listed in the amendment are among the higher paid of State workers and are exempt from union representation, based on either their managerial or confidential status. On September 10, 1992, Governor Florio vetoed Senate Bill 996. In his veto message, the Governor stated that [w]ithin the confines of [the Appropriations Act] and the massive cuts enacted by the Legislature, I agree wholeheartedly with the spirit of that priority list. And, as interpreted by the Attorney General, I believe this language is sufficiently permissive that it does not run afoul of the State Constitution. However, the Governor stated that the mandatory provisions of the Appropriations Amendment are a completely different matter that would impose upon the Executive Branch a series of restrictions that would clearly interfere in the Executive's constitutional duty to manage government. On September 14, 1992, the Legislature overrode the Governor's veto, and Senate Bill 996 became law.