When North Dakota’s governor Kelly Armstrong, assumed a draft budget law of the agency approved by the Legislature, vetoed a couple of lines. At least that was his intention on Monday. Instead, $ 35 million accidentally for the state housing budget.
Now the State is discovering how to deal with the unusual problem of a wrong veto.
“I don’t remember anything like this that happens in the 37 years I have been here,” said John Bjornson, director of the Legislative Council on Thursday. “Then, yes, I would say it’s a bit extraordinary.”
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Armstrong was not the only governor who possibly flube a line veto this week. On Wednesday night, the governor of Nebraska, Jim Pillen, announced that it would have around $ 47 million in cash and transfers in the next two years from the budget bill approved last week by the Nebraska Legislature. These cuts included around $ 12 million in two years for the Supreme Court of Nebraska.
But on Thursday afternoon, the speaker of the Legislature John Arch announced that the body would send a letter to Pillan, a republican partner, informing him that he had lost a deadline of 5 days, which reached midnight on Wednesday, to adequately present the line vetoes and that the order lines are now law. Pillen’s office replied that he handled the veto properly and consulted with the State Attorney General over the next steps.
In North Dakota, the governor’s staff called on the housing budget in the 2014 Senate bill an error of marking. Armstrong staff met with the Legislative Council on Thursday morning to discuss the options.
“This was an honest mistake, and we will fix it,” said a statement from the governor’s office.
Armstrong, a Republican who served three periods in Congress, was elected governor in 2024. The legislative session that was postponed at the beginning of the month was the first as governor.
In a message that accompanies the veto, Armstrong wrote that he intended to veto a subsidy of $ 150,000 to finance a liaison position of Native American homeless people. The budget veto would come into force on July 1.
What happens next is to the governor, Bjornson said, but the legislature is likely to be reconid as a special session. The governor’s office said he will call a special session if necessary, but expects to “avoid spending.”
If the legislature cancels the veto, that would include funds for Grant Armstrong, he had wanted to attack. If the legislature only wants to finance the $ 35 million housing budget, legislators may need to approve a new bill, which could take up to three days, Bjornson said.
The legislature has six days available to use its 80 -day session limit, and a special session could open the opportunity to cancel other vetoes of the governor. The governor vetoed all or parts of four bills in this session.
