Opinion ID: 4299313
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: $120,125,000 for water supply;b. $27,000,000 for rural water supply;c. $136,000,000 for flood control; andd. $15,750,000 for general water.

Text: 2. The funding designated in this section is for the specific purposes identified; however, the state water commission may transfer funding among these items, subject to budget section approval and upon notification to the legislative management’s water topics overview committee . H.B. 1020, § 5, 65th Legis. Assemb., Reg. Sess. (N.D. 2017) (emphasis added). The Governor vetoed the language “subject to budget section approval and upon notification to the legislative management’s water topics overview committee.” 2017 N.D. Sess. Laws ch. 446. [¶34] The Legislative Assembly argues that the Governor vetoed a condition on the appropriation of $298,875,000 to the water commission. They contend that the veto would allow the water commission to use the entire amount of appropriated funds however it chooses, freely transferring between the designated purposes, which would render the original allocation by the legislature meaningless. The Governor concedes that the Water Commission Veto is ineffective. For the reasons discussed in section III(C), the Governor’s concession is of no effect. This veto did not strike a sum of money. Because Section 5, House Bill 1020, conditions the $298,875,000 appropriation on the approval of the budget section as to the transferring of funds among categories, and the Governor did not veto the $298,875,000 appropriation itself, the Water Commission Veto was unauthorized. This veto is ineffective.