Cuomo vetoes studies on mental health housing needs and municipal broadband
By Bill Mahoney
12/06/2019 08:05 PM EST
ALBANY — Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s late-year rush of vetoes continued apace on Friday evening, with the governor nixing 23 bills. He also signed 38.
Cuomo had not vetoed any bills in their entirety in the first 10 months of the year; he has since vetoed 69.
As is often the case, the justification for vetoing many of the bills is that they incur costs and would better be dealt with in the budget.
A measure that would let winners of Masters in Education Teacher Incentive Scholarship Program awards attend private schools instead of just public schools “could increase program costs by an estimated $10 million dollars,” Cuomo wrote. Another that would have the state study the feasibility of a municipal broadband program “would require a significant expenditure of funds.” And one to have a commission study spending needs in the state’s mental health housing system does not come with “a source of funding” to cover the commission’s technical needs.
Supporters of some of these measures grumbled that the costs of the bills are minimal and said Cuomo used that as an excuse to block bills he simply doesn’t like.
“The only result of this bill being signed into law would be an honest and impartial assessment of the dire fiscal condition of our housing system, and our fear is that this is the real reason why the governor decided to veto it,” said Bring it Home Coalition chair Antonia Lasicki, who supported the mental health study measure.
Cuomo also vetoed a bill that would have allowed taxi medallion owners to authorize agents to handle paying any congestion surcharges they incur. That measure lacks clarity for determining who’s responsible if neither party pays, the governor wrote, and “would undermine the ability of the Tax Department to administer and enforce the congestion surcharge.”
The bills Cuomo signed include a measure that would raise the annual cap on the amount of money a public sector retiree can earn without having their pension reduced from $30,000 to $35,000. That was advertised as a way to increase the number of retirees working as substitute teachers.
View Cuomo’s veto messages here and his chapter messages here.