steven
April 26th, 2006, 07:27 PM
The state Legislature completed overriding vetoes Wednesday made by Gov. George Pataki in the 2006-07 budget.
After failing to reach a negotiated settlement with Pataki this week, Republican state Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno allowed his chamber to procede with the overrides. The Democrat-dominated Assembly, which overrode half of Pataki's 207 vetoes on Monday, also went into session and overrode the line-item vetoes as quickly as the Senate was sending them over.
Both houses had the two-thirds majorities necessary to override the vetoes and took only a few hours to do so on Wednesday.
Among the budget items restored by the Legislature with veto overrides were those providing extra aid to public colleges and universities and a special tax cut to property owners averaging between $300 and $400 each. The Senate held back on a handful of relatively minor overrides because of legal questions, Senate Republican spokesman Mark Hansen said Wednesday.
The overrides by the Legislature set up the potential for the courts to decide the 2006-07 state budget. Pataki said many of the vetoes he made of $2.9 billion worth of spending in the plan were of items the governor said the courts have said are unconstitutional. Pataki said legislators were also spending too much in a plan that may total as much as $115 billion.
Pataki affirmed Wednesday his intention not to carry out appropriations that his counsels tell him are not legal.
Legislative leaders say their spending plan is both balanced and legal. Both Bruno and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver have promised to take Pataki to court if his administration fails to carry out appropriations that the Legislature makes through overriding the governor's vetoes.
http://www.bizjournals.com/buffalo/stories/2006/04/24/daily35.html?jst=b_ln_hl
After failing to reach a negotiated settlement with Pataki this week, Republican state Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno allowed his chamber to procede with the overrides. The Democrat-dominated Assembly, which overrode half of Pataki's 207 vetoes on Monday, also went into session and overrode the line-item vetoes as quickly as the Senate was sending them over.
Both houses had the two-thirds majorities necessary to override the vetoes and took only a few hours to do so on Wednesday.
Among the budget items restored by the Legislature with veto overrides were those providing extra aid to public colleges and universities and a special tax cut to property owners averaging between $300 and $400 each. The Senate held back on a handful of relatively minor overrides because of legal questions, Senate Republican spokesman Mark Hansen said Wednesday.
The overrides by the Legislature set up the potential for the courts to decide the 2006-07 state budget. Pataki said many of the vetoes he made of $2.9 billion worth of spending in the plan were of items the governor said the courts have said are unconstitutional. Pataki said legislators were also spending too much in a plan that may total as much as $115 billion.
Pataki affirmed Wednesday his intention not to carry out appropriations that his counsels tell him are not legal.
Legislative leaders say their spending plan is both balanced and legal. Both Bruno and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver have promised to take Pataki to court if his administration fails to carry out appropriations that the Legislature makes through overriding the governor's vetoes.
http://www.bizjournals.com/buffalo/stories/2006/04/24/daily35.html?jst=b_ln_hl