Schwarzenegger Budget Vetoes Challenged in Court

SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) - The case challenging the governor's authority to furlough state workers during a budget stalemate is not the only one before the state Supreme Court trying to limit Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's power of the pen.

A coalition of groups is challenging some $490 million of line item vetoes, additional cuts to health and human services programs on top of the mid-year slashing approved by the legislature.

"The governor's veto power is only a qualified and destructive legislative power, never a creative one," said attorney Dereck Milosavljevic.

In other words, the governor can use the line item veto to eliminate original appropriations, but not to add further reductions. The legislature must be called back into session if the governor wants changes, said Milosavljevic.

Viewed from the Schwarzenegger administration's perspective, the practice falls within the governor's constitutional powers, said attorney Ross Moody.

"The governor may reduce or eliminate one or more items of appropriation while approving other portions of the bill," he argued before the Justices on Wednesday.

Moody says the separation of powers allows the legislature to override any line item veto.

Finding a two-thirds majority could be a challenging prospect given the difficulty of marshalling a supermajority to pass the budget in the first place.