|
|
| |
| Thu, Dec. 4, 2008 |  |
 |
|
||
| |
Vetoed appropriations win House approval in revised form Tuesday, May 1, 2007 By John Lyon Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - Several legislative appropriations vetoed by Gov. Mike Beebe were revived Monday by state lawmakers on what was expected to be the penultimate day of the 2007 regular session. Returning after a recess that began April 3, House members amended a bill by Rep. Will Bond, D-Jacksonville, to include appropriations totaling about $780,000 in General Improvement Fund money for six projects for which the General Assembly previously approved separate appropriation bills. Beebe vetoed those bills, saying they would violate a constitutional ban on special and local legislation. After amending Bond's bill, House Bill 2403, on Monday the House sent the measure to the Joint Budget Committee, which recommended it in a voice vote. The House then approved the bill in a 96-2 vote. The bill goes to the Senate today, the last scheduled day of the session. House Speaker Benny Petrus, D-Stuttgart, told House members that if the Legislature wanted the appropriations to go through despite the vetoes, it had two choices. "We either had to come up with a solution to fix them, or to override a veto. And after leadership analyzed the bills, with some of the ones he vetoed, I think he had good reason to do so, and I couldn't disagree with the governor," Petrus said. Petrus said House leadership worked with the governor's staff to fix the unconstitutional aspects of the appropriations. As worded in HB 2403, the funding is directed to state agencies which will then choose whether or not to fund specific projects. "Our staff and his staff worked together to fix these general improvement bills to get them constitutional, and then we had this agreement that if we passed them on a vote, that they wouldn't be vetoed," Petrus said. Beebe spokesman Matt DeCample said Monday the governor supports the concept of appropriating money to state agencies rather than specific local projects, but DeCample would not say a veto was out of the question. "We of course will want to take all the steps and make a thorough review and make sure that there won't be any problems with it down the line," he said. Bond filed HB 2403 on March 2 as a "shell" bill - a bill that contains no substantive language and is filed for the sole purpose of amending it later, if the need arises. Voting against the bill were Reps. Horace Hardwick, R-Bentonville, and Daryl Pace, R-Siloam Springs. "They pulled that through so fast, I didn't get to read it all," Hardwick said after the vote. "They ran it through Joint Budget fast. I'm just not convinced that it's all constitutional." "I felt like it was akin to overriding a gubernatorial veto, which I have always said, that's an important part of the process that should be taken very seriously, when it was Gov. Huckabee and now when it's Gov. Beebe," Pace said. "While this was not a direct override, it certainly was working circles around the vetoes." The appropriations included in HB 2403 are: -$100,000 to the Department of Health and Human Services' Division of developmental disabilities Services for grants to community programs for developmentally disabled children and adults. -$425,429 to the state Department of Economic Development for grants and aid. -$200,000 to Ozarka College for construction and improvements at the Mountain View and Melbourne campuses. -$25,000 to the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission for grants and aid. -$10,000 to the Department of Rural Services for grants and state assistance to fire departments. -$20,000 to the Department of Workforce Education for Northwest and Crowley's Ridge Technical Institutes and Riverside Vocational Technical School for construction, maintenance, facility improvements and new equipment. |
