We all point to the U.S. Constitution as the supreme law of the land and the Wyoming Constitution as the supreme law for the state. Yet we regularly see very different opinions about what’s “constitutional.”
A recent example is what happened to a request for funding for an aging water tower.
A legislator requested funding to complete a new tower in his town under an appropriate funding source within the state budget bill. The governor drafted the bulk of the budget, which consisted of large expenditures on his specific policy preferences.
Rep. Jeremy Haroldson ultimately voted against the budget bill, citing the huge overall budget increase as a concern. The governor then struck the tower funding request from the final signed budget, stating that he was “following the lead of local legislators who voted against the budget.”
This resulted in the legislator citing this retaliatory move as “unconstitutional.”
Below is a section from the Wyoming Constitution that addresses the issue of vetoes.
What do YOU think? Was the Governor’s veto constitutional or unconstitutional?
Wyoming Constitution, Article 4 Executive Department
Sec. 10. Bribery or coercion of or by governor. Any governor of this state who asks, receives or agrees to receive any bribe upon any understanding that his official opinion, judgment or action shall be influenced thereby, or who gives or offers, or promises his official influence in consideration that any member of the legislature shall give his official vote or influence on any particular side of any question or matter upon which he is required to act in his official capacity, or who menaces any member by the threatened use of his veto power, or who offers or promises any member that he, the governor, will appoint any particular person or persons to any office created or thereafter to be created, in consideration that any member shall give his official vote or influence on any matter pending or thereafter to be introduced into either house of said legislature; or who threatens any member that he, the governor, will remove any person or persons from office or position with intent in any manner to influence the action of said members, shall be punished in the manner now or that may hereafter be provided by law, and upon conviction thereof shall forfeit all right to hold or exercise any office of trust or honor in this state.