Governors Can Reject Obama Stimulus Money, but State Legislatures Can Thwart Them
Updated on 2/19/09: An earlier version of this blog post asserted that South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford had said he would reject federal stimulus spending. The source was a report from The Online News Hour, to which I had linked in an earlier blog post. Sanford's spokesman subsequently contacted me to say that the governor has not said one way or another whether he will let South Carolina accept the federal cash.
By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
I wrote yesterday about GOP governors who have spoken out against the stimulus, and mentioned that a couple of them are mulling the notion of rejecting the federal cash entirely. This got me to wondering (and prompted a friend to ask) whether governors have the authority to simply reject the stimulus money for their state.
The answer is a qualified yes.
I checked in with the helpful folks over at the Senate Appropriations Committee, who directed me to page 491 of Division A of the Recovery Bill.
It says that state governors must within 45 days of the bill being enacted certify that the state will request and use the funds, and that "the funds will be used to create jobs and promote economic growth." So it is the governor's call.
But if the governor does not accept the money, then the state legislature can accept the cash "by means of the adoption of a concurrent resolution." So if, say, South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford does indeed reject the federal bucks, the South Carolina legislature could make sure the Palmetto State gets its share of the money anyway.
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Tags: governors | economic stimulus | state budgets
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Reader Comments
I wish Bush had given me an option to spend the trillions of war money
If G. W. Bush had given me the options between spending trillions in war killing our 5000 US soldiers and millions of innocent iraqis, I would have taken the money to do just what President Obama is doing right now. Give it to the American people.
Yeah, My gov is a republican. We turned the state blue and he can't do jack about it. The nation is turning blue by the minute as Republicans keep being the party of no.
2004 election's Republican agenda: Jindal, No.
Can individuals reject?
I'm trying to decide whether to return my $400 to "pay down the public debt" or send it to Republican Natl. Comm.
Decisions, decisions.
I'm thinking the RNC since the Obamanists would just spend it anyway and not even get the message.
Turning down stimulus
There is no chance in hell of any state turning down megabucks from Washington. Showoff governors can spit in the plate for the cameras till the cows come home but when the TV crews have packed up they will dine just as greedily from the public trough as anyone else. It's a shame, in a way: in the dire times about to descend on us it would provide some much-needed popular distraction to see said pols being ridden out of town on a rail by the very jobless they'd created through their haughtiness. I for one would pay to see it.
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