Decision strike down Lamar corruption
The Mississippi Supreme Court upheld Governor Tate Reeves' partial veto of the budget bill:
¶18. The omnibus characteristics of House Bill 1782 dictate today’s result. The monies were appropriated to multiple, distinct, and separate entities, thus they were multiple separate appropriations as expounded upon in Holder. The Governor’s partial veto struck two appropriations, $2 million to Tate County and $6 million to MAGnet Community Health Disparity Program. The removal of these appropriations did not affect any other appropriations in the bill. The partial veto properly removed parts that could “be taken from the bill without affecting the others, which [could] be separated into different parts complete in themselves . . . .” Holder, 23 So. at 645. Accordingly we reverse the judgment of the chancery court, and we hold the partial vetoes authoritative. The partial vetoes were a constitutional exercise of the authority endowed the office of the Governor by the people of Mississippi in our Constitution.
¶19. We reverse the chancery court’s judgment and render judgment for the Governor, declaring that the veto of parts of House Bill 1782 was lawful under section 73 of our Constitution. No motion for rehearing will be allowed in this case, and the Clerk of this Court is directed to issue this Court’s mandate immediately.
HB # 1872, an appropriations bill, contained a provision that was muscled through by Representative Trey Lamar (R-Fief of Tate County) that would provide $2 million in CARES Act funds to a defunct hospital. The hospital is subject of a sale but remains closed. The House also took away a $6 million CARES Act appropriation from Jackson State University and gave it to a little known program (MAGnet) favored by several members of the Black Caucus such as State Representative Robert Johnson (D-Raymond).
Kingfish note: Make no mistake, what these House clowns did was hand a great deal of power to the Governor in one fell swoop.The Lieutenant Governor and all but two Representatives are probably going to be very angry the House leadership picked a fight (so some favored members could help out their friends) just to lose one of its basic powers to the Governor. Make no mistake. This decision is huge.
23 comments:
So.....Guess that means that Attorney General Fitch beat Andy (trying to be relevant) Taggert again. Poor guy, just keeps losing.....
Tater is going to need to order lots of red ink for his pen as he can veto any line item he wants in a bill that reaches his desk.
Way to go Mr. Buckteeth and Philbert.
I love line item veto power. Now if we could just have a Convention of States to add this and term limits to the U.S. Constitution our country would be a better place.
Gunn and Lamar just took away a 100 year old precedent that favored the legislature, just for their own agrandizement. Hosemann ought to be pissed, along with all those House members who had to foot the bill for this game playing out of their House piggy bank.
Big win - not just for the Governr, but for the state. The preceding precedents based on a 1898 court ruling back when executive power was hated by almost all was a terrible precedent. Glad we had Justices willing to recognize that it was time to right that ship. (Excluding King and Kitchens, of course.)
go read the opinion. A win for Reeves, but not as sweeping as you are making it. Justice Randolph clearly stated the Governor has the constitutional authority for line item vetoes when dealing with OMNIBUS appropriations bills. It went into detail about this - this doesn't mean individual agency approps bills.
There aren't many omnibus approps bills at the legislature.
When do the invitations go out for Tate's celebration party, with open bar, at the Governor's Mansion?
Surprise surprise. King and Kitchens the two most left-wing justices dissented along with Josiah Coleman. Is Coleman a lefty too? Came very close in the recent election of having a third left-wing justice. Griffin narrowly won.
Not so fast, 3:35. Yes, the opinion does define this as an omnibus appropriation bill as both sides agreed. But Section 73 states "ANY appropriations bill" which CJ Randolph points out as well.
The defining part is whether in a regular or general appropriation bill or in a special appropriation bill the veto would not affect the remaining parts of the appropriation.
But I'm sure lawyers will have a fun time tussling with this one for a while - in the meantime, depends on whether Gunn and Lamar can get their members to pony up for another sizeable legal bill from their travel and expense funds, when they were told not to deal with the veto by the Speaker and his Tonto.
After a series of wins by Spr Gunn this year on the flag and taking away the CARES money from the governor, he goofed on this one and handed Gov Reeves a big victory. I agree with KF on the significance of this. I'm interested in how the session goes this year and how the fight continues.
Speaker Gunn, in his infinite wisdom, just empowered the governor in a big way. Let’s be nice and just say Speaker Gunn ain’t the sharpest knife in the drawer.
Gunn handed TR his ass this year ! This is a small win for the Guv and I don’t see this coming into play much in 21. TR needs to worry about his constituents and Delbert .
Coleman's dissent is right. Start with it (at the end) and then read the rest of the opinion. Individual legislators should not bring suits. They have no more standing than the street beggar. If suit is to be brought, the House or Senate should bring it. Neither did. They allowed the veto to go unchecked (not over-ride it).
The majority apparently agrees with Coleman but, said, what the heck, we will decide the case anyway. That is not proper.
258... MS is the loser by electing Fitch... she and her team are clueless...
Does this mean Trey Lamar won't be a weekly regular on Supertalk radio any more. I'm sure he was looking forward to gloating about this and now he can't.
What they going to do with the weed law?
Dilly Dilly!
Well, look at what is around Gunn now.
His brain trust was Baker, Snowden, Busby, Delano, Cory, Mims, and a couple of others. Cory moved on, Baker left, Snowden got beat, Delano moved to Senate. What Gunn now has around is Lamar and Busby.
In other words, the IQ around the Speaker has gone way down within a year. Lamar is supposedly becoming the bully of the House and there is no one in the room to tell these guys no or that's not a good idea as in years past.
I’m always amazed to hear Kingfish criticize someone’s IQ.
Lamar's mother was a Supreme. Wonder what she thinks of the decision!
Expect new legislation to reign this in
Kingfish, don’t forget Nathan Wells, the Speaker’s chief of staff for the first eight years. His absence is keenly felt too.
@11:02pm Lamar's mother being a former Supreme could have been a reason for their ruling, in that they didn't want to show any conflict of interest.....for which that family thrives on, and gets away with daily.
@11:04pm
"Expect new legislation to reign this in." They might try, but it will be found unconstitutional for encroaching on the Separation of Powers in the Constitution. No fan of Tate, but the Governor's office does have a seat (and a vote) at the budgetary table per the Constitution.
Someone however should reign silverspoon Trey Lamar, and his exaggerated sense of himself in. He wouldn't even make it outside Mississippi.
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