Ask SSC . . .
Could You Explain the Governor’s Threat to Veto All Bills if the Legislature Overrides His Veto of the Budget?
Q. Do you have any further clarification from the Governor's Office on his threat to veto hundreds of other bills on his desk if the Legislature overrides his veto of the Budget? Are these just Budget-related bills? If not, why would the Legislature’s overriding the Governor’s veto of the Budget have anything to do with the Governor’s analyses of these bills?”
A. Following prepared remarks at his Tuesday, September 16, 2008, press conference announcing his plan to veto the Budget bill, the Governor made himself available for questions. A reporter requested that the Governor clarify his veto remark, asking “if the Legislature overrides your budget veto, you will, in turn, veto all of the bills that reach your desk, the 900 and some-odd bills, or 800 and some-odd bills that are coming to you?”
In responding, the Governor appeared to back away from his original statement slightly. He said, “The only power that I have as Governor in a situation like this is looking at the bills very carefully, every bill, and see which bill will cost more money to the state or which bill is a job killer. So I will look at every bill very carefully and evaluate that. So I'm not saying every bill, I'm just saying that every bill will be carefully evaluated and hundreds of bills will be vetoed.” Aside from this statement, we have not heard any further clarification from the Governor’s Office.
The bills at issue are not related to the Budget. But the Governor doesn’t have any leverage over legislators other than a threat to veto their bills. Given the Democratic majority in the Legislature, most of the bills threatened would be authored by Democrats. The Governor has back-pedaled on issues in the past (i.e., signing the high speed rail bond bill after saying that he’d veto anything sent to his desk before a Budget had been signed), and is unlikely to stick to his threat to veto all bills. But the Governor could veto some bills as “punishment” for legislators who fail to cooperate on his requested Budget changes, although this connection would only be speculative.
--Deborah Harmon