The following opinion is presented on-line for informational use only and does not replace the official version. (Mich Dept of Attorney General Web Site - www.ag.state.mi.us) STATE OF MICHIGAN FRANK J. KELLEY, ATTORNEY GENERAL Opinion No. 6812 August 15, 1994 CONSTITUTIONAL LAW: Effective date of an appropriation act An appropriation act may take effect no earlier than the expiration of 90 days after the end of the legislative session unless given immediate effect by a two-thirds vote of each house in accord with Const 1963, art 4, Sec. 27. Honorable William R. Bryant, Jr. State Representative The Capitol Lansing, MI You have asked if an appropriation act may take effect earlier than the expiration of 90 days after the end of the legislative session without being given immediate effect by a two-thirds vote of each house in accord with Const 1963, art 4, Sec. 27. Const 1963, art 4, Sec. 27, which covers the effective date of public acts, provides: No act shall take effect until the expiration of 90 days from the end of the session at which it was passed, but the legislature may give immediate effect to acts by a two-thirds vote of the members elected to and serving in each house. [Emphasis added.] Const 1963, art 4, Sec. 33, dealing with the gubernatorial approval of bills passed by the Legislature, provides, in pertinent part: Every bill passed by the legislature shall be presented to the governor before it becomes law, and the governor shall have 14 days measured in hours and minutes from the time of presentation in which to consider it. If he approves, he shall within that time sign and file it with the secretary of state and it shall become law. [Emphasis added.] Const 1963, art 5, Sec. 18, which addresses the Governor's role in submitting a proposed budget to the Legislature, provides: The governor shall submit to the legislature at a time fixed by law, a budget for the ensuing fiscal period setting forth in detail, for all operating funds, the proposed expenditures and estimated revenue of the state. Proposed expenditures for any fund shall not exceed the estimated revenue thereof. On the same date, the governor shall submit to the legislature general appropriation bills to embody the proposed expenditures and any necessary bill or bills to provide new or additional revenues to meet proposed expenditures. [Emphasis added.] Lastly, Const 1963, art 4, Sec. 22, which deals with the requirements to pass legislation, provides: All legislation shall be by bill and may originate in either house. [Emphasis added.] Under these provisions, a bill passed by the Legislature, given immediate effect and signed by the Governor becomes law upon filing with the Secretary of State. OAG, 1983-1984, No 6201, p 230 (January 30, 1984). You ask if an appropriation act that is not given immediate effect may become effective on the date specified therein, even if that date occurs prior to the expiration of the ninety day period specified in Const 1963, art 4, Sec. 27. Constitutional provisions are to be construed so as to give effect to the plain meaning of the words used therein as commonly understood. Advisory Opinion on Constitutionality of 1978 PA 426, 403 Mich 631, 638; 272 NW2d 495 (1978). The usual and ordinary meaning of the term act is a bill which has been enacted by a legislature and has become law. See Klosterman v Marsh, 180 Neb 506; 143 NW2d 744, 749 (1966). The above-quoted provisions clearly contemplate that budget bills appropriating money will be enacted into law by the same process that applies to any other legislation. Thus, an appropriation bill that has been passed in the appropriate form by the Legislature and signed by the Governor is an act of the Legislature that becomes law upon filing with the Secretary of State in accord with Const 1963, art 4, Sec. 33. See OAG, 1991-1992, No 6707, p 102, 105 (December 12, 1991). The predecessor of Const 1963, art 4, Sec. 27, was Const 1908, art 5, Sec. 21. This earlier provision specified that only acts making "appropriations" and "acts immediately necessary for the preservation of the public peace, health or safety" could be accorded immediate effect. Thus, the 1908 Constitution limited the power of the Legislature to give immediate effect to its acts. The only acts that could receive immediate effect were those making "appropriations" or those involving the "preservation of the public peace, health or safety." The framers of the 1963 Constitution recognized that a substantial amount of litigation could result from frequent legislative attempts to strain the meaning of these terms to give immediate effect to certain acts. 2 Official Record, Constitutional Convention 1961, p 2955-2957. As a result, the framers decided to eliminate the requirement that an immediate effect act be for "appropriations" or related to "public peace, health, or safety." In Frey v Dep't of Management & Budget, 429 Mich 315, 332-333; 414 NW2d 873 (1987), the Court noted that this change "enabled the Legislature to give immediate effect to any urgently needed legislation, regardless of its substance." (Emphasis added; footnote omitted.) The Frey court further recognized the concerns of some convention delegates that the power to give immediate effect to any law might endanger the right of referendum reserved by Const 1963, art 2, Sec. 9, and, in any event, might not give citizens adequate time to become acquainted with new statutes before they went into effect. 429 Mich 333. To allay these concerns, according to Frey, "the framers decided to maintain the requirement that no act passed by the Legislature could take immediate effect unless passed by a two-thirds vote of the elected members of each house." Id. (Emphasis in original.) As there are no exceptions to this requirement, it necessarily follows that the ninety day waiting period applies to all legislation, regardless of content, absent an appropriate vote by the Legislature to give the measure immediate effect. (1) A statutory provision cannot take precedence over a constitutional directive. The Legislature, therefore, may only override the mandatory minimum waiting period set forth in Const 1963, art 4, Sec. 27, by a two-thirds vote in each house. It cannot, by simple majority vote, select different effective days that are within the mandatory minimum waiting period for appropriation acts. It is my opinion, therefore, that an appropriation act may take effect no earlier than the expiration of 90 days after the end of the legislative session unless given immediate effect by a two-thirds vote of each house in accord with Const 1963, art 4, Sec. 27. Frank J. Kelley Attorney General (1)