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AGO: Fitial also has legal reprogramming authority
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Posted on Mar 23 2006
The Attorney General’s Office has justified the governor’s move to cut the spending level of agencies, saying that the reprogramming authority given him by the Legislature was not the sole basis for the reduction.
Attorney General Matthew T. Gregory said that the governor had legal authority to take the steps it took to address the current financial situation of the government.
Gregory’s statement was made in response to House Minority Leader Arnold I. Palacios’ request for information regarding Governor Fitial’s authority to reprogram funds.
Palacios had said that Fitial seemed to be trying to exceed his statutory authority in reprogramming the budgets of the legislative, judicial, resident representative, mayors and municipal authority. These branches of government are excluded from Public Law 15-1, which gave the governor almost unrestricted power to reprogram funds within the Executive Branch and autonomous agencies.
Gregory said that the across-the-board budget cut was consistent with a legal opinion issued by the AGO in 2002. Former Attorney General Robert Torres wrote the legal opinion to justify a similar across-the-board reduction that the Babauta administration implemented at the start of its term.
He also said that the governor’s state of emergency declaration for the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. allowed Fitial to reprogram funds from any government agency.
“Although [P.L. 15-1] did not provide the governor with reprogramming authority over certain parts of the government, it is not the only basis for his reprogramming authority. In addition to this authority, Governor Fitial has properly declared a state of emergency with respect to CUC…,” Gregory said.
“This authority does not limit the ability of the governor to reprogram funds from anywhere in the government. This authority provides the governor with an additional basis for the reprogramming he has had to undertake for the CUC emergency. It also provides him authority to reprogram funds from all sources, including agencies from which he cannot otherwise reprogram funds under P.L. 15-1,” he added.
