The Governor’s rather tame vetoes yesterday are expected to snowball into significant ones today. Here’s The Sun on what’s expected:
To the alarm of lawmakers, he’s taking aim at some of their most cherished spending items, like the Senate’s program to give millions of New Yorkers property tax rebate checks. He’s also using the court’s decision to confront lawmakers on Medicaid spending, which he says is too high. And he’s vetoing the Legislature’s entire revenue bill because it doesn’t include a pro-school choice measure that would give tuition tax credits to low-income parents.
This rather presidential-looking move (hello, Red States! I’m a fiscal conservative!) is obvious enough.
One question: won’t it further damage Republican candidates upstate, where voters are watching the appropriations closely to gauge this administration’s commitment to improving their economic forecast? Or will Joe Bruno be able to protect Republicans upstate by further distancing himself from Pataki?
Here he is on the Pataki “nuclear option” yesterday:
He said it would be “very unfortunate and tragic” if the governor struck down the Legislature’s property tax rebate program.
– Tom McGeveran