Pinchot, 060233 PAAGO, AGO 81

• Case Date: June 02, 1933
• Court: Pennsylvania

Honorable Gifford Pinchot, AGO 81 Opinion No. 81 Pennsylvania Attorney General Opinions Opinion of the Attorney General June 2, 1933          Appropriations—Eiders in the General Appropriation Act of 1933—Veto power of Governor—Constitutional Law, Art. III, Sees. 3 and 15; Art. IV, See. 16.          Article IV, Section 16 of the Constitution empowers the Governor to disapprove any item or items of any bill making1 appropriations of money embracing distinct items, and provides that the part or parts approved shall be the law and the items disapproved shall be void.          Honorable Gifford Pinchot,          Governor of Pennsylvania,          Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.          Sir: You have asked to be advised what effect is to be given to the so-called riders in the General Appropriation Act passed at the 1933 session of the Legislature and now before you for approval.          A typical example of these riders is that which follows the appropriation for the State-owned medical and surgical hospitals. It is as follows:

"Provided That from the amount hereby appropriated the annual salary of any Superintendent of a State Medical and Surgical Hospital shall not exceed four thousand five hundred dollars ($4,500) including maintenance the annual salary rate of any Roentgenologist Pathologist and Internet shall not exceed five thousand dollars ($5,000) including maintenance and no other employe shall receive a salary wage or other compensation exceeding an annual rate of four thousand dollars ($4,000) including maintenance * * *"

         This proviso is not an appropriation, but an attempt to limit salaries and thus to deprive the Executive Board of the power now conferred upon it by Section 709 of The Administrative Code of 1929 to classify State employes and fix their compensation.          Article III, Section 15 of the Constitution provides that:

"The general appropriation bill shall embrace nothing but appropriations for the ordinary expenses of the executive, legislative and judicial departments of the Commonwealth, interest on the public debt and for public schools; all other appropriations shall be made by separate bills, each embracing but one subject."

         Article III, Section 3 of the Constitution exempts the General Appropriation Bill from the requirement that:

"No bill, except general

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