A 5-2 Pennsylvania Supreme Court majority has ruled that a press release announcing a veto does not necessarily meet the constitutional requirement of a "public proclamation."

And so, former Gov. Tom Corbett has suffered another defeat from a term that ended nearly three years ago.

And the state may be on the hook for roughly $72 million. More on that, in a bit.

The case at hand arose from a challenge by state Senate leaders to Corbett's line-item veto of several 2014-15 budget lines, and corresponding language in the state fiscal code, which applies rules to how budgeted funds are spent.

The meat of the challenge was whether the governor's line-item veto power on budget bills extend to the fiscal code; it's a question that could have a lot of significance for future state budget deliberations.

The court essentially punted on that issue, however, because - in a series of concurring and dissenting opinions - the justices couldn't get past the much more arcane issue of whether Corbett properly transmitted his veto to the General Assembly, which had adjourned for the summer at the time.

Corbett's staff notified the House Parliamentarian, filed the physical bills and his objections with the Secretary of State, and issued a press release explaining the governor's decision to the world.

In its very narrow decision, a majority led by Justice David Wecht held that modern-media press release - amplified by news outlets across the state and posted directly on the state's Web site - failed to meet the Constitutional requirement of a "public proclamation."

The main problem, Wecht held, is that Corbett's office did not include in that release specific Constitutionally-required information that his objections had been filed with the Secretary of State.

So rather than a proper veto message, Wecht said, this was "an informal communication to the public via mass media. Although it achieved the objectives of public dissemination, it lacked the formality required to make the public aware that the announcement had legal and constitutional significance."

Current and future governors, you are informed.

Now to the rest of the story.

Corbett, exasperated with legislative leaders refusal to use some of their reserves to help balance the $29.1 billion 2014-15 budget, forced "mutual sacrifice" on lawmakers by cutting their operating budget by $65 million.

He also struck about $7 million from a variety of other agencies.

With that veto now invalid, some said the original appropriations should be honored, though no one was immediately certain how to accomplish that in a state government that had to borrow to balance this year's budget.

Wecht's opinion, in fact, holds that both bills became law "in their entirety."

But current state Budget Secretary Randy Albright noted Wednesday that the appropriations in question lapsed at the end of that year, meaning those dollars had reverted to the broader general fund.

Current Gov. Tom Wolf's office had defended Corbett's veto in the interest of preserving executive branch powers.

"I think we will pursue it in a collegial sort of way," said Drew Crompton, chief of staff and counsel to Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati, R-Jefferson County, who was joined the Republican and Democratic floor leaders in the case.

State House leaders did not participate.

Crompton said the Senate is interested in pursuing the 2014-15 funds, but is open to negotiation about how they are used.

The majority's opinion overturned a January 2016 Commonwealth Court opinion that upheld the Corbett vetoes, on grounds that they were properly executed, and that the general budget bill and the fiscal code are interdependent.

The Supreme Court's resolution of that latter issue, Wecht wrote Wednesday, "must await another day."