DALLAS - Arizona's Republican lawmakers are going to court to overturn Democratic Gov.Janet Napolitano's use of line-item vetoes to restore funding to the state's $6.4billion budget.
Napolitano, who was the state's attorney general before her election as governor lastyear, said she is confident that the courts will uphold her 35 vetoes, which add $35million in funding for state agencies.
At issue is the governor's right to restore funding, which legislative leaders say isstrictly the prerogative of the Legislature. By deciding how money should be spent forindividual programs and from which sources, Napolitano in effect usurped legislativeauthority and appropriated money unilaterally, the leaders claim in a lawsuit Tuesdaybefore the Arizona Supreme Court.
Among the vetoes facing challenge is one having to do with the formula for future schoolrepairs. By reducing building maintenance payments in fiscal 2004, the legislature saved$60 million in its effort to overcome a $1 billion revenue shortfall. But Napolitano'sveto eliminated the reductions, including cutbacks to districts that were losingenrollment. School repairs in the state are financed through revenue bonds issued by theSchool Facilities Board.
Attorney John Bouma of the firm Snell & Wilmer is representing the Republicanlegislators and maintains the governor can veto a bill but not portions of a bill.
The lawmakers will also seek to reverse Napolitano's decision to delay $75 million infunding for settlement of a securities-related tax lawsuit. A court ruling held lastyear that taxing dividends paid by out-of-state corporations at a higher rate than thosepaid by in-state corporations was unconstitutional. A negotiated settlement with theaffected taxpayers produced a plan to reimburse them with $350 million paid over threeyears. The judge in that case allowed special provisions to pay the settlement, in lightof Arizona's severe budget crisis.
Napolitano's vetoes also restored funding for the Arizona Commission on the Arts, thestate Department of Health Services, and dental services under the state's Medicaidplan.
Bouma and Napolitano are reversing the roles they played in a 1992 case over the use ofline-item vetoes. Bouma then represented the governor, while Napolitano represented theLegislature. However, Bouma said his legal position on the issue has not changed in thenew lawsuit.
"I think we're taking exactly the same position," he said. "Back then, you had aDemocratic Legislature and a Republican governor, and now you have a RepublicanLegislature and a Democratic governor. But I don't think it would make any difference.There are certain things the governor can and cannot do."
In the 1992 case, Rios v. Symington, the state Supreme Court ruled the governor has theauthority to block transfers from special funds and to reduce previously approvedexpenditures. But the court also held that the governor cannot use line-item vetoes in away that would redirect spending to other areas.
Senate President Ken Bennett, R-Prescott, and House Speaker Jake Flake, R-Snowflake,said they are asking the court to fast-track the lawsuit because it affects spending inthe current fiscal year.
