Final answer:
The governor's line-item veto power enables the rejection of specific items in a spending bill, allowing the rest of the bill to become law. In addition to other types of vetoes, the line-item veto gives governors a strong tool to influence budget legislation without entirely blocking a bill's passage.
Step-by-step explanation:
The governor's line-item veto power allows him or her to reject specific portions of a spending bill while signing the rest of it into law. This power is particularly useful when a governor agrees with the main substance of a spending bill but wants to remove certain expenditures that he or she finds unnecessary or undesirable. This veto power acts as a significant check on the legislative branch, allowing the governor to shape legislation in accordance with his or her policy preferences and budgetary concerns.
In some states, governors also have the power of an amendatory veto, which lets them send a bill back to the legislature with suggestions for amendments. In addition to the line-item veto, the reduction veto empowers some governors to decrease the amount of spending proposed in a bill. While the line-item veto was granted to the President in 1996, this federal power was later struck down by the Supreme Court in 1998, thus reinstating it as a state-focused power.