Welden v. Ray
| Decision Date | 12 May 1975 |
| Docket Number | No. 2--57321,2--57321 |
| Citation | 229 N.W.2d 706 |
| Parties | Richard W. WELDEN et al., Appellants, v. Robert D. RAY, Governor of the State of Iowa, et al., Appellees. |
| Court | Iowa Supreme Court |
Barker, Hansen & McNeal, Iowa Falls, for appellants.
Dickinson, Throckmorton, Parker, Mannheimer & Raife, Des Moines, for appellees.
EN BANC.
This appeal involves vetoes of qualifications which the legislature imposed upon appropriations.
In Senate File 540, the Sixty-Fifth General Assembly of Iowa appropriated funds to the Iowa Commission on Alcoholism. Section 2, with the vetoed language lined out, provides:
There is appropriated from the general fund of the state for the biennium beginning July 1, 1973 and ending June 30, 1975, for the Iowa commission on alcoholism, the following amounts, or so much thereof as may be necessary, to be used in the manner designated: . . .
For purposes of carrying out the provisions of section one hundred twenty-three A point eight (123A.8) and chapter one hundred twenty-three B (123B) of the Code relating to the treatment of alcoholism, subject to the approval of the governor:
(1973-1974) (1974-1975)
$500,000 $500,000
In House File 739, the General Assembly appropriated funds to the department of social services for its family and children services division. Section 1, with the vetoed language lined out, provides:
There is appropriated from the general fund of the state for the biennium beginning July 1, 1973 and ending June 30, 1975 for the department of social services institutions and for the establishment of community-based pilot programs authorized by this Act the following amounts, or so much thereof as may be necessary to be used in the manner designated:
1973-74 1974-75
Fiscal Year Fiscal Year
------------------------ -------------
FAMILY AND CHILDREN SERVICES
For the operation of the following institutions
State Juvenile Home
Toledo $1,310,525 $1,353,845
Boys Training School
Eldora $2,350,074 $2,428,609
Girls Training School
Mitchellville $ 832,145 $ 859,443
Annie Wittenmyer Home,
Davenport $1,638,900 $ -- 0 --
Community-based pilot
programs $ 100,000 $ -- 0 --
And § 2, with the vetoed language lined out, provides:
Maintenance recovery shall be available to the institutions.
In House File 769, the General Assembly appropriated funds for capital improvements of institutions in the department of social services. Section 1 of the act, with the vetoed language lined out, provides:
There is appropriated from the general fund of the state to the department of social services for the biennium commencing July 1, 1973 and ending June 30, 1975, the sum of three million (3,000,000) dollars, or so much thereof as is necessary, to be used to supplement any prior appropriations for capital improvement items for repairs, improvements, replacements, or alterations, or for any capital expenditures the department of social services may deem necessary, except as otherwise provided in this Act, for the proper and necessary function of any institution under its jurisdiction.
In House File 780, the General Assembly appropriated funds to the office for planning and programming and the office for economic opportunity. Section 1, with the vetoed language lined out, provides in part:
There is appropriated from the general fund of the state for each fiscal year of the biennium beginning July 1, 1973 and ending June 30, 1975, to the office for planning and programming the following amounts, or so much thereof as may be necessary, to be used for the following purposes: . . .
3. For salaries, support, maintenance, and miscellaneous purposes excluding the state building code, funded by state or federal funds for the following: the general office, including support of community action local aid programs including state matching funds; for the community affairs division, excluding the state building code; comprehensive health planning and developmental disabilities; for the manpower administration department of labor cooperative area manpower planning system secretariat and alcoholism project:
(1973-1974) (1974-1975)
$435,753 $437,856
4. For salaries, support, maintenance, and miscellaneous purposes for the state building code:
(1973-1974) (1974-1975)
$120,310 $124,810
And § 4, with the vetoed language lined out, provides:
All federal grants to and the federal receipts of the agency receiving funds under this Act are appropriated for the purpose set forth in the federal grants or receipts.
In House File 802, the General Assembly appropriated funds to the department of social services and its subdivisions. Section 1, with the vetoed language lined out, provides in part:
There is appropriated from the general fund of the state for the biennium beginning July 1, 1973 and ending June 30, 1975 to the department of social services, the following amounts, or so much thereof as may be necessary, to be used in the manner designated: . . .
1. AREA SERVICE AND ADMINISTRATION
For the administration of area offices and for county services including salaries and support:
(1973-1974) (1974-1975)
$5,510,700 $5,723,100
2. GENERAL ADMINISTRATION AND DEPARTMENTAL OPERATIONS
For the administration of the office of the commission of social services including the council of social services, the office of the deputy commissioner, the office of the bureau of family and children services, the office of the bureau of adult corrections services, the office of the bureau of medical services, the office of the bureau of mental health services, the office of the bureau of mental retardation services, the office of planning and budgeting, the office of administrative services, the office of personnel and staff development, the office of public information, the office of architectural and engineering services, the departmental dietary training school at Woodward, the operation of the central warehouse at Woodward, and all divisions thereof:
For salaries, support, maintenance and miscellaneous purposes:
(1973-1974) (1974-1975)
$3,213,300 $3,456,800
And § 2, with the vetoed language lined out, provides:
Plaintiffs commenced this action claiming that the vetoes we have set out do not come within the purview of the 1968 item-veto amendment to the Iowa Constitution. That amendment states:
The Governor may approve appropriation bills in whole or in part, and may disapprove any item of an appropriation bill; and the part approved shall become a law. Any item of an appropriation bill disapproved by the Governor shall be returned, with his objections, to the house in which it originated, or shall be deposited by him in the office of the Secretary of State in the case of an appropriation bill submitted to the Governor for his approval during the last three days of a session of the General Assembly, and the procedure in each case shall be the same as provided for other bills. Any such item of an appropriation bill may be enacted into law notwithstanding the Governor's objections, in the same manner as provided for other bills.
The trial court upheld the vetoes, and plaintiffs appealed.
The appeal presents four principal questions: whether the power to appropriate is essentially legislative in character, whether the power to veto includes the power not only to nullify but also to alter, whether the separate-and-severable doctrine applies in this situation, and whether the Brady rule controls here. We consider that plaintiffs have standing to sue, under our decision in State ex rel. Turner v. Iowa State Highway Commission, 186 N.W.2d 141 (Iowa).
I. Appropriating as a Legislative Function. The appropriation of money is essentially a legislative function under our scheme of government. The classic statement of the doctrine followed throughout the country was made in a Mississippi decision, Colbert v. State, 86 Miss. 769, 775, 39 So. 65, 66:
Under all constitutional governments recognizing three distinct and independent magistracies, the control of the purse strings of government is a legislative function. Indeed, it is the supreme legislative prerogative, indispensable to the independence and integrity of the Legislature, and not to be surrendered or abridged, save by the Constitution itself, without disturbing the balance of the system and endangering the liberties of the people. The right of the Legislature to control the public treasury, to determine the sources from which the public revenues shall be derived and the objects upon which they shall be expended, to dictate the time, the manner, and the means, both of their collection and disbursement, is firmly and inexpugnably established in our political system. This supreme prerogative of the Legislature, called in question by Charles I., was the issue upon which Parliament went to war with the King, with the result that ultimately the absolute control of Parliament over the public treasury was forever vindicated as a fundamental principle of the British Constitution. The American commonwealths have fallen heirs to this great principle, and the prerogative in question passes to their Legislatures without restriction or diminution, except as provided by their Constitutions, by the simple grant of the legislative power.
See Graham v. Worthington, 259 Iowa 845, 146 N.W.2d 626; La Febvre v. Callaghan, 33 Ariz. 197, 263 P. 589; City of Bridgeport v. Agostinelli, 163 Conn. 537, 316 A.2d 371; Opinion of the Justices, 308 Mass. 601, 32 N.E.2d 298; Mills v. Porter, 69 Mont. 325, 222 P. 428; State ex rel. Meyer v. State Board of Equalization & Assessment, 185 Neb. 490, 176 N.W.2d 920. Inherent in the power to appropriate is the...
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