Senate President Pro Tem Glenn Coffee, R-Oklahoma City, said he and House Speaker Chris Benge, R-Tulsa, will file the friendly suit within the next two weeks. They're asking for a legal interpretation from the Oklahoma Supreme Court.Coffee said it is his belief that the governor's line-item vetoes last year of budget-limitation bills dealing with the Oklahoma Department of Corrections and Ethics Commission were in error.
He said the lawsuit is not an effort to pick a fight with the Governor's Office but to protect the powers and duties of the legislative branch.
The line-item vetoes allowed the agencies to spend money for purposes not prescribed by the Legislature, he said.
Coffee said the line-item veto in the bill dealing with the Ethics Commission had to do with computer software. As a result, the commission used the money instead to raise staff members' pay, he said.
Coffee said he believes that Gov. Brad Henry can use the line-item veto only on appropriations bills and not on budgetary-limitation bills.
Appropriations bills allocate funds; budgetary-limitation bills direct how the money is to be spent.
At the heart of the issue is whether both are appropriations bills.
Coffee said Henry's use of line-item vetoes was an expansion of executive branch power.
Coffee said he is seeking guidance from the Oklahoma Supreme Court on future appropriations processes, adding that he is not seeking retroactive relief.
The governor said he "strenuously" objects to the lawmakers' position.
Henry said he believes that the drafters of the state constitution intended for the governor to have the power to use a line-item veto to address earmarks and pork projects.
He said that if the legislative leaders' position is affirmed, it would take away a powerful tool.
"It would effectively render the line-item veto useless," he said.
Henry said he would be forced to consider vetoing entire agency budgets that contain spending provisions that he thinks are not a good use of public money.
Doing so could shut down an entire agency, something the governor said he would be reluctant to do.
Henry said the issue is legitimate and needs to be resolved.
Legislative leaders had discussed the suit with him, he said.
