Governor John P. de Jongh, Jr. has vetoed legislature limiting the amount of money an outgoing administration can spend–only up to 25 percent–calling the action taken by the Senate “lamentable.”
“The continuous attempts by the Legislature, such as here, to manage and sit in the shoes of the administration, are lamentable,” de Jongh said. “This amendment is not only a violation of separation of powers; it will adversely affect the continuity of government and place an undue hardship in the government’s ability to contract for essential services on behalf of the people.”
On Sept. 30, the 30th Legislature introduced a measure that would drastically curtail an outgoing administration’s budget, and if passed, would limit the de Jongh administration’s funding to $2.25 million before the Governor’s second term in office is completed at the end of the year.
De Jongh added: “The law requires that the funds for contracts be encumbered prior to entering into contracts. Permitting agencies to encumber only sufficient funds for 25 percent of their contracts will prevent the executive branch from entering into contracts at all, thus crippling the normal functions of government. I will not stand by and permit your woefully misguided efforts to strike out at me to result in suffering for the people I was twice elected to represent.”
The Governor said he hoped the Senate would not override his veto, as there were too many important obligations that are tied to the funding.
“We have obligations that range from off-island residential care on behalf of families to rental payments to local landlords to trying to combine the eligibility apparatus, to name a few,” de Jongh said. “These will all be affected by an override of my veto which would reinstate the limitation on encumbrance of funds in the first quarter of the fiscal year.”
After de Jongh’s veto, Senate President Shawn-Michael Malone said the 30th Legislature would change the outgoing governor’s spending by 2 percentage points–upping the funds from 25% to 27%.
Malone also indicated that the 30th Legislature would take action in its next scheduled session to restore “the full year appropriation for the Office of the Governor.” In a previous story the VI Consortium reported, de Jongh had noted during his consideration of the 2015 budget that while the Senate had slashed the Office of the Governor’s budget, it had raised its own by some $3 million.
Voting for and against the measure on Sept. 30, sponsored by Sen. Clifford Graham, to bar outgoing administrations from spending more than 25 percent of the Executive Branch’s budget were:
- Senator Craig Barshinger — Yes
- Senator Judi Buckley — Yes
- Senator Diane Capehart — Absent
- Senator Donald G. Cole — No
- Senator Kenneth Gittens — Yes
- Senator Clifford Graham — Yes
- Senator Alicia “Chucky” Hansen — No
- Senator Myron Jackson — Yes
- Senator Shawn-Michael Malone — Yes
- Senator Terrence “Positive” Nelson — Yes
- Senator Nellie Rivera-O’Reilly — Yes
- Senator Clarence Payne — Yes
- Senator Tregenza A. Roach — No
- Senator Sammuel Sanes — Yes
- Senator Janette Millin Young — No
Tags: de jongh
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