Pow! Bam! Inslee delivers a one-two punch of executive power

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

OLYMPIA — In the final round of bill signing Tuesday, Gov. Jay Inslee unleashed a one-two combo of executive power the likes of which state lawmakers had never seen.

First, he vetoed a sentence repeated in six successive sections of the transportation budget, each time poisoning a different bucket of money for transit.

Then, he ordered $175 million be shifted from five highway projects to removing and replacing culverts impeding the passage of salmon to spawning grounds, and fish to the ocean.

Though separate and unrelated actions, each appears to set a precedent. Inslee’s top advisers Tuesday could not cite another example of a governor vetoing a single sentence in a budget bill or asserting executive authority to redirect such a large sum of transportation dollars absent involvement of lawmakers.

The veto involved grant programs supporting bus service, vanpool programs and other multi-modal projects. Under Inslee, laws have been passed requiring providers of public transit services to stop using gasoline-powered vehicles and switch to ones fueled by electricity or biofuel or other alternatives.

In the bill, lawmakers wrote that “Fuel type may not be a factor in the grant selection process.” This would allow grants to go to entities using gas-fueled vehicles in defiance of the alternative fuels law. The budget, with the language, passed nearly unanimously in both chambers.

Inslee could have vetoed each section — a typical response for problematic language — but that would have wiped out $200 million of transit funding. He wasn’t going to be stymied either.

“In this very rare and unusual circumstance I have no choice but to veto a single sentence in several subsections to prevent a constitutional violation and to prevent a forced violation of state law,” he wrote in his veto message.

https://www.heraldnet.com/news/pow-bam-inslee-delivers-a-one-two-punch-of-executive-power/

[ancianita]

1. Smart man. Judicious. Keeps to his vision to green the state while keeping the law constitutional.

Thank you so much for posting this.

[hay rick]

2. I like Inslee but...

Claiming the authority to veto individual sentences strikes me as perilously close to claiming the right to rewrite legislation. If that claim is upheld, what stands in the way of the authority to remove individual words? Words like "not." I respect Jay's motives but this looks like a terrible precedent.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

3. They've had a line item veto in Washington for quite some time.

[hay rick]

4. Very interesting.

I looked it up and it appears that Washington is indeed one of the few states that allows a line item veto for non-appropriation bills. Such a line item veto can be overridden by a two-thirds vote of the legislature. One practical result is that a governor can rewrite bills with the support of only one-third of the legislature.

I think the risk of abuse outweighs the potential benefit.

[BlueWI]

5. It's in Wisconsin too.

Hate the rule if you want, but the actions deserve support.