SNYDER SIGNS SUPPLEMENTAL, NOTES D.O.C. BOILERPLATE

July 14, 2011

While he didn't veto the boilerplate, Governor Rick Snyder indicated some language lawmakers inserted into a supplemental regarding the Department of Corrections is either limited or unenforceable.

Mr. Snyder signed SB 138, PA 83, on Wednesday; a supplemental appropriation bill that mainly accounts for changes in caseloads to Medicaid and welfare caseloads.

But the bill also includes boilerplate directing that if a Corrections service is put up for bid to a private contractor, Corrections employees should also be able to bid for that job. If those employees are ultimately rewarded with the contract, they would cease to be state workers.

But Mr. Snyder noted in his signing letter that the section imposes conditions on appropriations not contained in the supplemental.

"The conditions purportedly imposed by this section cannot be valid conditions on appropriations as they are outside the scope of the title and object of the bill and may violate Constitution 1963, Article IV, Section 24," the governor wrote.

He also said boilerplate requiring that prisoner telephone fees be no greater than the fees for standard residential calls made in the community surrounding a prison also had limited enforceability.

The supplemental only contains $1 million for Corrections for a Flint public safety project that would support the transfer of up to 200 inmates from the Genesee County Jail to surrounding county jail facilities.

Mr. Snyder noted the telephone boilerplate can only be enforceable to the extent the $1 million would be used for any prisoner telephone service contract.