LC 5.12: Gubernatorial Veto Powers Act (Vote to Table)

[OneJ]

AN ACT
to grant the Governor veto powers

Section 1 (Title)
i. The title of this Act shall be, the "Gubernatorial Veto Powers Act."

Section 2 (Amendment to the Council Standing Orders)
i. Section 2 of the Standing Orders of the Council of Lincoln shall be amended as follows

Section 2. Movement of Legislation to the Floor
G. Each thread shall remain open until the bill either (a) becomes law via the Governor's signature, lack of Gubernatorial action, or referendumveto override, (b) fails to receive majority support from Council, (c) is sent to the public for a referendum, pursuant to Article I, Section 6 of the Comprehensive Constitutional Amendment, or (c) the Chancellor moves to revoke it from the floor, subject to a majority vote

Section 3. Legislative Debates and Voting
I. In the event that passed legislation is recommended to a referendumvetoed by the Governor, either the Chancellor or any Councillor may introduce a motion to override the move to a referendumveto within 72 hours for the Governor's move to a referendumveto being announced. A veto override vote shall last 48 hours, or until all Councillors have voted, if earlier with a two-thirds majority required for the veto to be overriden. This text shall not be interpreted as to deny Councillors the right to change their vote before the Speaker has officially closed voting via a post in the appropriate legislation thread.

Section 3 (Gubernatorial Veto Powers Amendment)
i. To allow for greater powers to be granted to the Governor, the Constitution of the Region of Lincoln is amended as follows:

Article I. The Legislative Power
6. Every bill passed by the Council, before it becomes law, shall first be sent to the governor. If he approves of it, he should sign it and it will become law; but if he disapproves he may referveto the bill to a general referendum. The Council may override the referenceveto of the governor by a two-thirds majority vote of all elected MCs. If the governor fails to take any action on a bill within 120 hours of its passage, it shall become law.

Article II. The Executive Power
3. The governor shall have the power to carry out all acts in association with his role as the head of state of the Region; to command the militia in times of war; to issue pardons and reprieves for crimes committed under the laws of this Region, which shall be permanent upon their issuance, though he shall have no power to pardon himself; to appoint, in accordance with Article V of the Constitution of the Republic of Atlasia, the Associate Justice for this Region; and to approve, or send to referendumveto, all acts passed by the Council.

Section 4 (Implementation)
i. §3 shall take effect upon its ratification by the people, according to the procedure prescribed by the constitution of the Region by Article VI thereof.
ii. §2 shall take effect upon the ratification of section §3 in accordance with the constitution of the Region by Article VI thereof.

Sponsor: OneJ_
Status: Debating

LC 5.12 has been introduced to the floor and debate shall last no less than 72 hours.

[S019]

I’m mixed on this. On the one hand, I do favor sending vetoed legislation to referendum to give voters a say on legislation. But I also think that, yhat basically renders the Governorship powerless, which is not a good thing. I’ll withhold judgement for now and I’ll probably have a clearer stance on this bill, once debate has concluded.

[AustralianSwingVoter]

I’m mixed on this. On the one hand, I do favor sending vetoed legislation to referendum to give voters a say on legislation. But I also think that, yhat basically renders the Governorship powerless, which is not a good thing. I’ll withhold judgement for now and I’ll probably have a clearer stance on this bill, once debate has concluded.

If someone does not have a firm position on an amendment then the democratic path of action would be to yield and give the public the right to decide whether an amendment should be enacted.

[Esteemed Jimmy]

I encourage all council members to support this amendment.

[S019]

After some thinking, I agree with the sentiments of the Honorable Member of Fremont Parliament. This would be sent to referendum, and it would allow citizens to decide whether they want to go to a referendum after every gubernatorial veto. So, I will vote “Aye” on this bill, however I am undecided as to how I will vote during the referendum.

[OneJ]

This bill is pretty self-explanatory. It increases the threshold for the Council to override the veto of the Governor should she or he do so from just a simple majority to two-thirds of the Council. I support this given that a higher number of councilors on the same page to push a bill through in spite of what the Governor's decision and it can go into referendum if it needs to.

[Peanut]

Hi, former Governor and guy you've all worked with speaking.

This is, quite frankly, a bad measure. The whole point of our constitutional structure as framed is to give the people the final say on whichever passed bill the Council and the Governor disagree on, and removing that will neither make the position of Governor more "fun" nor in any way help our region's democratic legitimacy. I disagree with ASV: if the Rt. Hon. Chancellor is undecided, then he should see how debate moves before making a judgement.

To put it simply, tje only thing this bill would do is take away even more power from the Legislature and the People, and for what, exactly? I see no plausible benefit to that: what is wrong with letting the people be the final arbiters on a bill the Governor vetoes? It's not like  the power has been misused since the new Constitution was adopted, and it's not the case that we haven't done some tweaks either. I strongly urge the Councillors to vote against this, and am completely open to further conversations with them if needed .

[Peanut]

This bill is pretty self-explanatory. It increases the threshold for the Council to override the veto of the Governor should she or he do so from just a simple majority to two-thirds of the Council. I support this given that a higher number of councilors on the same page to push a bill through in spite of what the Governor's decision and it can go into referendum if it needs to.

We already did that. We passed the Legumes Deserve Respect Amendment (which was originally the MPGA Amendment) to deal with the threshold issue, so for practical matters it only removes the referendum from the legislative process, a move which I'm not in favor of.

[OneJ]

It doesn't seem that we're moving forward with this bill either, so I'll motion to table this. The objection period shall last for 24 hours.

[OneJ]

Forgot to allow a tabling vote. It officially begins now and councilors have 48 hours to vote.

Aye.

[Pragmatist_TNAG]

Aye

[S019]

AYE