Article XVI, Section 69 of the Texas Constitution
Added November 5, 1985:
The legislature may require, by rider in the General Appropriations Act or by separate statute, the prior approval of the expenditure or the emergency transfer of any funds appropriated to the agencies of state government.
Editor Comments
The Texas Attorney General, in Tex. Att'y Gen. Op. CM-1141 (1972), opined that: "In effect, giving the Governor of Texas a statutory authorization to approve or disapprove an expenditure which had already been appropriated would be a second veto privilege. Our Texas Constitution, like the Constitution of Oklahoma, prohibits the Governor from having more than the one veto provided for in Article IV, Section 14, of the Texas Constitution."
The Texas Attorney General, in Tex. Att'y Gen. Op. PD-1254 (1951), opined that: "The riders in the general appropriation bill which seek to confer upon a joint board composed of members of the Legislature [] authority to require further itemization of appropriated funds or approval of the expenditure thereof violate Section 1 of Article II [], which prohibits the exercise by the legislative branch of powers properly attached to the executive branch."
This section, which presumably provides an exception to Article II, Section 1 and several other fundamental provisions of the state constitution, has been criticized as too vague.
Recent Decisions
None.
Historic Decisions
None.
Library Resources
- Vernon's Annotated Constitution of the State of Texas (this multi-volume and up-to-date resource is available at all law libraries and many municipal libraries)
- The Texas State Constitution: A Reference Guide (this one-volume resource is available at most law libraries and some municipal libraries)
- The Constitution of the State of Texas: An Annotated and Comparative Analysis (this two-volume resource is available at most law libraries and some municipal libraries)
Online Resources
- Constitution of the State of Texas (1876) (this resource is published and maintained by the University of Texas School of Law)
- Amendments to the Texas Constitution Since 1876 (this resource is published and regularly updated by the Legislative Council)
- Reports Analyzing Proposed Amendments (this resource is published and regularly updated by the Legislative Reference Library)