Opinion ID: 2631894
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Consequences of allowing veto

Text: Third, reasoning that because courts do not read ambiguous legislation to reach absurd results, [103] Repasky argues that allowing this veto would lead to convoluted political consequences. He anticipates that an assembly might take no action on a school budget ordinance, leading to automatic approval, in order to deny the mayor a veto opportunity; he also anticipates that a mayor might veto the ordinance just before the thirty-day window expires, in order to prevent an override vote. Further, he claims that permitting a mayoral veto would require the school budget to clear hurdles never intended by the legislature. But we do not read AS 14.14.060(c) as intending to insulate school district budgets from local political influences. The statute makes it clear that the local appropriations for a school district are subject to municipal approval. Arguments that an item veto would be undesirable in the context of appropriations for the critical function of public educationbecause the veto is exercised without a public hearing, is exercised by only one person, and might not be successfully overriddenwould apply with equal force to most public appropriations. Those arguments generally implicate the item veto power; they do not assist in interpreting AS 14.14.060(c). Repasky and Long's arguments demonstrate that the mayor's veto adds an extra political element to the school budget process, but they do not establish that the veto power irreconcilably conflicts with Title 14. Other parts of the municipal budget are enacted by the assembly and are subject to a mayoral veto. [104] Allowing the mayor to veto the school budget ordinance puts the appropriation process on footing equivalent, but not identical, to that of other municipal budgets. The municipality's school budget is a large part of the municipality's expenditures and property taxes. The municipality argues that the school budget is growing faster than any other municipal expenditure and caused a fifty-one percent increase in property taxes between 1990 and 1998. [105] Such assertions explain the municipality's interest in exercising the appropriation power granted by AS 14.14.060(c). They also illustrate why home rule municipalities might choose to adopt an item veto power that encompasses school district appropriation ordinances. And they are consistent with the absence of an express or implied prohibition preventing a home rule municipality from sharing its legislative power with its mayor as a means of directly influencing the school budget and the resulting burden on local taxpayers.