Report Title:

Constitutional Amendment; Repeal Governor's Line Item Veto

Description:

Proposes a constitutional amendment to repeal the governor's line item veto authority.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.B. NO.

2639

TWENTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2004

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

PROPOSING AMENDMENTS TO ARTICLE III, SECTIONS 16 AND 17, TO REPEAL THE GOVERNOR'S LINE ITEM VETO POWER.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. The purpose of this Act is to propose an amendment to article III, section 16, of the Constitution of the State of Hawaii to repeal the governor's power to veto specific items in any bill, except for items appropriated to be expended by the judicial and legislative branches, which appropriates money for specific purposes by striking out or reducing the same.

SECTION 2. Article III, section 16, of the Constitution of the State of Hawaii is amended to read as follows:

"APPROVAL OR VETO

Section 16. Every bill which shall have passed the legislature shall be certified by the presiding officers and clerks of both houses and shall thereupon be presented to the governor. If the governor approves it, the governor shall sign it and it shall become law. If the governor does not approve such bill, the governor may return it, with the governor's objections to the legislature. [Except for items appropriated to be expended by the judicial and legislative branches, the governor may veto any specific item or items in any bill which appropriates money for specific purposes by striking out or reducing the same; but the] The governor shall veto [other] bills, if at all, only as a whole.

The governor shall have ten days to consider bills presented to the governor ten or more days before the adjournment of the legislature sine die, and if any such bill is neither signed nor returned by the governor within that time, it shall become law in like manner as if the governor had signed it.

RECONSIDERATION AFTER ADJOURNMENT

The governor shall have forty-five days, after the adjournment of the legislature sine die, to consider bills presented to the governor less than ten days before such adjournment, or presented after adjournment, and any such bill shall become law on the forty-fifth day unless the governor by proclamation shall have given ten days' notice to the legislature that the governor plans to return such bill with the governor's objections on that day. The legislature may convene at or before noon on the forty-fifth day in special session, without call, for the sole purpose of acting upon any such bill returned by the governor. In case the legislature shall fail to so convene, such bill shall not become law. Any such bill may be amended to meet the governor's objections and, if so amended and passed, only one reading being required in each house for such passage, it shall be presented again to the governor, but shall become law only if the governor shall sign it within ten days after presentation.

In computing the number of days designated in this section, the following days shall be excluded: Saturdays, Sundays, holidays and any days in which the legislature is in recess prior to its adjournment as provided in section 10 of this article."

SECTION 3. Article III, section 17, of the Constitution of the State of Hawaii is amended to read as follows:

"PROCEDURES UPON VETO

Section 17. Upon the receipt of a veto message from the governor, each house shall enter the same at large upon its journal and proceed to reconsider the vetoed bill[, or the item or items vetoed,] and again vote upon such bill[, or such item or items,] by ayes and noes, which shall be entered upon its journal. If after such reconsideration such bill[, or such item or items,] shall be approved by a two-thirds vote of all members to which each house is entitled, the same shall become law."

SECTION 4. The question to be printed on the ballot shall be as follows:

"Shall the governor's veto power be used only on bills as a whole and not for individual appropriations?"

SECTION 5. Constitutional material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New constitutional material is underscored.

SECTION 6. This amendment shall take effect upon compliance with article XVII, section 3, of the Constitution of the State of Hawaii.

INTRODUCED BY:

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