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1990 Maine Attorney General Reports and Opinions 1 (1990)

handle is hein.sag/sagme0018 and id is 1 raw text is: 90-1 TAMES E. TIERNEY ATTORNEY GENERAL STATE OF MAINE DEPARTMENT OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL STATE HOUSE STATION 6 AUGUSTA, MAINE 04333 January 12, 1990 Honorable John R. McKernan, Jr. State House Station #1 Augusta, ME 04333 Dear Governor McKernan: This is in response to your inquiry of January 11 whether Maine law requires you to ensure that the State budget for fiscal year 1991 is in balance prior to the commencement of that year on July 1, 1990. For the reasons which follow, it is the opinion of this Department that you are under no such obligation. As set forth more fully in the attached Opinion of the Attorney General of March 2, 1983, there are two legal obligations concerning the balancing of the State budget. First, Article IX, Section 14 of the Maine Constitution prohibits the State from incurring any debts or liabilities in excess of $2,000,000, unless bonds to cover any debt or liability in excess of that amount are approved by the Legislature and the people. Second, Section 1664 of the State Budget Act, 5 M.R.S.A. SS 1661 et seq., requires that the Governor submit a budget for each biennium showing the balanced relations between the total proposed expenditures and the total anticipated revenues together with the other means of financing the budget for each fiscal year of the ensuing biennium, . . . Op. Me. Att'y Gen. 83-8. The second of these requirements is not implicated by your question, since it relates only to the submission of a proposed budget at the outset of each biennium. The first requirement, however, does impose upon the State government the obligation not to overspend (in excess of $2,000,000) actual revenues (and other available funds). Thus, during any one fiscal year, if insufficient funds are on hand to meet new debts or liabilities,

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